New WH-347 form Expires 1/31/2028
01/16/2025
Yesterday (1/15/2025) we became aware of a new Federal WH-347 Certified Payroll Report from the U.S. Department of Labor, that is to expire on 1/31/2028. Bookmark this page and visit it often, as we will be providing weekly updates.
1/30/2025
Here we are, 2 weeks into this process.
- The form templates are complete and you can actually read the information!
- Ben has the initial coding done
- Nancy should start testing on Monday 2/3/25
BUT, there is still a long way to go. Changes to the WH-347 form impact each and every state! This means:
- EVERY state must be tested to make sure that these changes DO NOT interfere with any existing state specific forms and/or electronic uploads. Keep in mind some states have multiple state specific reports as well as electronic uploads. THIS TAKES TIME!
- Documentation must be created so that you know how to implement the newly required information. THIS ALSO TAKES TIME!
- Our entire manual and all training videos need to be redone.
That's it for this week.
1/16/2025
Ok, first off - have you seen and really looked at this new report, I mean REALLY looked at it? If you haven't seen it yet, but have only heard about it - get the form in pdf here from the Department of Labor website.
If you compare the form that expires 1/31/2028 to the form that was set to expire on 9/30/2026 - it's easy to see that the changes are extensive.
While the form still requires that you report fringes paid in cash there is a new focus and that's how much of the full fringe amount you are taking in credits for company paid items that are NOT paid to a union.
- how you're paying the fringes to each employee (in cash and/or as a credit)
- how much you're paying in fringes credits (the hourly rate for each specific fringe AND the total contributed for each employee on each specific job)
- who you're paying the fringe credits to (plan numbers)
It's also asking to differentiate whether employees are Journey workers or Registers Apprentices and if they are registered apprentices through the U.S. DOL Office of Apprenticeship or a State Apprenticeship Agency, as well as the name of the Apprenticeship Program.
This is no easy undertaking (creation of a new form templates, hours of coding changes, and then testing, debugging, and documentation) and we are working diligently to produce the required information in a format where the data will fit on a letter-sized piece of paper and is is actually readable.
A timeline is hard to determine, as past experience with dealing with a time crunch on a Herculean task - such as this - at a former employer our group had a canned response of "2 weeks, we'll tell you when we start."
And then, the new administration may likely change things yet again. Oh, boy! ##$%@'em all! That said, we have always believed the WH-347 should include fringe benefit information for each employee along with the payee/trustee it is being paid to as it then fulfills the fair treatment of labor.
We intend to release a report that contains all the required information, presented in a legible, easy to read manner - however, it may not look exactly like the form created by the U.S. DOL. - which, by the way is for Contractor's Optional Use.
Stay tuned for further updates.
FYI, we are NOT the only software company that is trying to incorporate this new form, I'm sure we're all scrambling to comply with this new requirement.