How to file the Affidavit of Wages Paid with Washington L&I

What is the Affidavit of Wages Paid?

It is the closing prevailing wage filing on a Washington public works project. L&I describes its content in one sentence: "The Affidavit of Wages Paid states the work you have done on the project and the rates paid." It is the second half of a pair. The Statement of Intent to Pay Prevailing Wages opens the job and the Affidavit closes it. RCW 39.12.040 requires both from every business on the project rather than from the prime contractor alone. An awarding agency waits for the Affidavit before it releases retained funds. That is why a contractor who has finished the work and been paid for it can still be short the retainage months later.

Source:L&I: contractors and employers RCW 39.12.040

Where do I file the Affidavit of Wages Paid?

You file it online, in your Contractor Portal in My L&I. L&I's instruction to contractors is "File the Affidavit in your Contractor Portal in My L&I". The same page sends contractors to My L&I to reach that portal: "Use these instructions to sign up, or log in to My L&I to access your Contractor Portal. This will allow you to file required forms and manage certified payroll records." The prevailing wage intent and affidavit application sits behind that sign-in. A request to secure.lni.wa.gov/pwia/ on 5 September 2026 resolved to the secure.lni.wa.gov sign-in page rather than to a public form. There is no page on which you can complete the Affidavit without an L&I account.

Source:L&I: contractors and employers

When is it due, and what has to happen before it?

You file the Affidavit when the work is done. L&I groups it under "When the work is done" and lists two tasks there: file the Affidavit, and "Check on your subcontractors. Determine whether all subcontractors have filed their required forms through your Contractor Portal in My L&I." The Intent runs on a different clock at the other end of the job. L&I states that the Statement of Intent to Pay Prevailing Wages "should be filed immediately after the contract is awarded and before work begins". You post the approved Intent on the jobsite when the contract is over $10,000. The Intent also gates payment on its own: "The agency administering the contract cannot make any payments to contractors until the Intent form is submitted and approved by L&I."

Source:L&I: contractors and employers

Is a filed Affidavit the same as an approved Affidavit?

No. RCW 39.12.040(1)(b) requires that "Each affidavit of wages paid must be certified by the industrial statistician of the department of labor and industries before it is submitted to the disbursing officer." Submitting the form starts a review. It does not end one. A form that is pending, returned for correction, or sitting incomplete has not been certified, and an uncertified Affidavit does not satisfy the condition an awarding agency is holding retainage against. A large share of blocked closeouts sit at exactly this step. The filer has done the work, has a record of having filed, and has no signal that the filing did not clear.

Source:RCW 39.12.040

What does it cost to file?

The statute caps the fee and charges it to the awarding agency rather than to the filer. L&I may charge the awarding agency up to forty dollars to certify one affidavit. RCW 39.12.070(1) provides that L&I "may charge fees to awarding agencies on public works for the approval of statements of intent to pay prevailing wages and the certification of affidavits of wages paid". RCW 39.12.070(2) sets the ceiling: "the fees charged for the approval of statements of intent to pay prevailing wages and the certification of affidavits of wages paid shall be forty dollars or less, as determined by the director of labor and industries". L&I sets the amount inside that ceiling by rule, so the current figure comes from L&I and not from this page. The statute writes in one exemption. Under RCW 39.12.070(3), where the filer is exempt from paying the prevailing rate of wage under RCW 39.12.020, L&I "may not charge a fee to certify the affidavit of wages paid".

Source:RCW 39.12.070 RCW 39.12.020

What happens if the Affidavit is never filed?

You pay a penalty for each failure to file, and you cannot bid on a public works contract until you have paid it. RCW 39.12.050(1) covers a contractor or subcontractor who "files a false statement or fails to file any statement or record required to be filed or fails to post a document required to be posted". The contractor pays $500 for each false filing or failure to file or post, and the statute bars that contractor from bidding on any public works contract "until the penalty has been paid in full to the director". The director issues that determination after a hearing. The statute carves out honest mistakes. The penalty "does not apply to a violation determined by the director to be an inadvertent filing or reporting error", and the contractor carries the burden of proving the error inadvertent. A second violation inside five years costs more than money. RCW 39.12.050(2) says that contractor "shall not be allowed to bid on any public works contract for one year", running from the date of the notice of determination.

Source:RCW 39.12.050

Do I have to file certified payroll as well?

Yes, and you file it monthly. L&I states that "As of January 1, 2020, weekly certified payroll reports are required to be filed online with L&I at least once a month for all public works projects", and points at the statute the legislature added for it, RCW 39.12.120, enacted by ESSB 5035 in 2019. The report carries employee name, address, trades and occupations including journey level and apprentice workers, the straight time rate actually paid, the hourly rate of usual benefits, hours worked including daily and weekly overtime, all executed 4/10 work agreements, and all itemized deductions from gross wages. L&I adds that the payroll is only certified with the state affirmation page attached. You keep the payroll records themselves "for three years from the date the awarding agency accepts the public works project as completed."

Source:L&I: contractors and employers RCW 39.12.120

My subcontractor has closed. Can I file their Affidavit for them?

You can in defined circumstances, and the statute states the cost in the same passage. RCW 39.12.040(1)(b) allows that "the contractor or subcontractor with whom the subcontractor had a contractual relationship for the project may file the forms on behalf of the nonresponsive subcontractor", then limits it: "Affidavit forms may only be filed on behalf of a nonresponsive subcontractor who has ceased operations or failed to file as required by this section." The price is in the next sentence. "The contractor filing the affidavit must accept responsibility for payment of prevailing wages unpaid by the subcontractor on the project pursuant to RCW 39.12.020 and 39.12.065." Filing for a defunct subcontractor moves that subcontractor's unpaid prevailing wage liability onto you.

Source:RCW 39.12.040 RCW 39.12.065

Once my Affidavit is approved, does the retainage come back?

Not on your filing alone. The release condition covers the whole job rather than one firm. RCW 39.12.040(1)(b) requires the disbursing officer to collect an affidavit from "the contractor and each and every subcontractor from the contractor or a subcontractor" before retained funds are released, which reaches down the full tier chain. Two further conditions sit after the affidavits. RCW 60.28.011(2) gives lien claimants forty-five days from completion of the contract work to give notice. RCW 60.28.021 has the public body pay the balance only after that period expires and "after receipt of the certificates of the department of revenue, the employment security department, and the department of labor and industries". The sixty-day release clock in RCW 60.28.011(3)(b) runs subject to all of it. The companion page works through why release is blocked and what the sixty days mean.

Source:Why retainage release is blocked RCW 60.28.011 RCW 60.28.021

How do I check whether an approved Affidavit is on file for a project?

L&I publishes the Statement of Intent records and the Affidavit of Wages Paid records as open datasets on data.wa.gov, keyed to each other by intent ID. The check needs no account with the awarding agency and no public records request. Reading the two files against each other shows an intent with no matching approved affidavit behind it. The comparison has traps. Jobs still running, cancelled contracts, and paper filings that never reached the published extract all sit in the same gap. An awarding agency may authorise the combined form allowed by RCW 39.12.040(2) on a public works project of $5,000 or less, and a separate Affidavit record may never exist for those. HeldBack runs the comparison for one company name or UBI at a time, free.

Source:Intent dataset (t9je-9qwa)Affidavit dataset (9ncw-tqjn)Run a free check

What else can check this, and what do those options cost?

The two published datasets are free to query by hand, and that is the right route for anyone comfortable joining them. A certified payroll platform such as PrevailComply addresses the filing sequence itself. It does not check L&I's published record against a named company. A construction attorney is the right route once a contract is genuinely disputed rather than simply unconfirmed. The compare page puts every option on one grid, the alternatives page covers the field, and the PrevailComply page goes through the one named commercial alternative in full.

Source:Compare HeldBack Alternatives HeldBack vs PrevailComply

What this page is not

HeldBack is not the Washington State Department of Labor & Industries, is not the awarding agency on any contract, and is not a law firm. Nothing here is legal advice, and nothing here replaces L&I's own instructions to the contractor filing the form. Every L&I sentence quoted above was read from L&I's contractors and employers page on 5 September 2026. Every statutory passage was read from the published RCW text the same day. Both are linked in the clause that uses them. A check result showing no approved Affidavit of Wages Paid means a matching approved record does not appear in L&I's published file. It is not a finding that any firm failed to file, and it is not a determination that money is owed to anyone.

Source:L&I: contractors and employers L&I Prevailing Wage Program