In 2026 contractors on public work in New York City reported paying at or above the comptroller's schedule wage in 82 percent of worker-weeks, and below it in 7 percent.
Contractors on public construction in New York must file a certified payroll every week: who worked, in what trade, at what hourly rate. The state Department of Labor publishes the filings, and the city comptroller publishes the wage each trade is owed. This puts the two side by side for the five boroughs: 55,352 worker-weeks and 1,156,624 straight-time hours on 1,224 projects, filed by 486 contractors. A worker-week is one worker on one project for one week. The shares are of the 44,776 journey-level worker-weeks with a reported rate and a matched trade. In 8 percent of those the schedule rate depends on the equipment used, and in 3 percent the contractor reported wage and benefits as one number. A rate below the schedule is a comparison, not a finding of a violation.
Sources: Certified Payroll Registration · Comptroller's construction wage schedules · Public work contractor registry · How this was built
Right-hand figures are journey-level worker-weeks with a rate. Trades whose schedule rate depends on equipment, such as operating engineers, are left out because a single wage cannot be compared.
Built with AI assistance from two public sources. A rate below the comptroller's schedule wage is a comparison, not a finding of a violation: most projects here are under state jurisdiction, where the state's own county schedule governs, and some trades have lower legitimate tiers the match cannot see. Hours and rates are as the contractor filed them. The weekly wage column in the source file does not reconcile to hours times rate and is not used.
How this was built, the trade crosswalk, and what it cannot tell you →