Service Contract Act on VA and federal ride contracts: wage determinations, fringe benefits, and paid hours

When does the Service Contract Act apply to a ride contract?

It applies to a federal contract over $2,500 whose main purpose is to furnish services through workers in the United States, and a VA or agency contract for wheelchair, stretcher, or sedan rides fits that description. The statute is 41 U.S.C. 6702, and the contract carries the Labor Department’s clause at 29 CFR 4.6, which also flows down to subcontractors. How VA buys these rides, and what one solicitation asked for, is in the VA transportation contracts guide, and the rest of the bidding process is in the government contracts guide. This page covers the wage side: what the contract makes you pay and what to keep.

One exemption could matter to a transport company. A contract for the carriage of freight or personnel by vessel, airplane, bus, truck, express, or railway line where published tariff rates are in effect is outside the Act (29 CFR 4.115). The Labor Department treated a VA wheelchair transportation contract in Atlanta as covered. If a solicitation for rides has no wage determination attached, ask the contracting officer why. Under the standard clause a contract with none attached still owes every worker at least the Fair Labor Standards Act minimum wage.

Three other points to settle before you read the numbers:

• Minimum wage orders. Executive Order 14236 revoked Executive Order 14026, the contractor minimum wage order that had reached $17.75 an hour in 2025, on March 14, 2025. A wage determination still prints a separate floor of $13.65 an hour from May 11 through December 31, 2026 for contracts awarded from 2015 through January 29, 2022 and not renewed since. The wage determination rate applies when it is higher.
• Paid sick leave. A contract that also falls under Executive Order 13706 adds one hour of paid sick leave for every 30 hours worked, up to 56 hours a year, and uses a lower health and welfare figure.
• Successor contracts. When a contract follows one whose workers were under a collective bargaining agreement, the new contractor must pay at least what that agreement provided, including increases already negotiated (41 U.S.C. 6707(c) and FAR 52.222-41).

How do you find the wage determination for a contract?

Search SAM.gov. Open Wage Determinations, choose Service Contracts, and type the wage determination number if the solicitation names it. If it names none, the county crosswalk on the same page shows which determination covers the county where the work is done. The Labor Department issues two kinds. One sets the rates prevailing in the area. The other is issued where a collective bargaining agreement covers the workers. Bid with the one attached to your solicitation, which becomes part of the contract. A newer revision reaches the contract at the next anniversary date or option period.

A determination lists every job title with an hourly rate, then the benefits that apply to all of them. Rates and benefits differ a great deal between areas, which is why bidding from another county’s numbers is a mistake. Two determinations revised in August 2026 show the spread:

The first covers Hancock, Harrison, and Jackson counties in Mississippi, revision 31, dated August 11, 2026. The second covers the Bronx, Kings, New York, Queens, Richmond, Rockland, and Westchester counties in New York, revision 37, dated August 12, 2026. They are examples of the format and the spread, not rates for your bid.

Which job title does a NEMT driver fall under?

A wheelchair van driver is a shuttle bus driver (van driver), occupation code 31290. The Labor Department’s Directory of Occupations describes that title as a driver of a minibus or van who transports clients from loading areas to social services or rehabilitation centers, and who may help disabled passengers in and out and secure wheelchairs for the trip.

That title was tested on a NEMT contract. A company running wheelchair transportation for the Atlanta VA medical center argued its drivers should be paid as taxi drivers, the lower title, because the vans needed no commercial license and drivers took people from homes rather than a staging area. The Administrator compared the contract with the Directory and found duties a taxi driver title does not include, such as securing wheelchairs and assisting disabled passengers. The Administrative Review Board affirmed on February 13, 2020 (ARB No. 2016-0078). Its reasoning matters beyond that case: a title fits when it is a reasonable match for the actual duties, drivers do not have to perform every listed duty, and a request to reclassify is handled like a conformance request, which is not available when a listed title already covers the work.

The difference is real money. In the Mississippi determination above, taxi driver is $1.69 an hour below shuttle bus driver, which comes to $3,515.20 a year for a full-time driver paid for 2,080 hours.

Timing matters. The review board generally will not review a wage determination after a contract is awarded or an option exercised, so challenge a rate before award. The petition on the shuttle rate in the Atlanta case was thrown out as late: the contract had begun in 2009 and the petition was filed in 2016.

If a job on your contract fits no listed title, the contractor proposes one through the conformance process on Standard Form 1444. The contractor sends it to the contracting officer within 30 days after the unlisted class first performs contract work, the Labor Department has 30 days to answer, and the approved rate is owed from the first day of that work (FAR 52.222-41). Conforming is also not a way to split or subdivide a listed title (29 CFR 4.152).

What do you pay on top of the hourly rate?

The fringe benefits, which are separate from and in addition to the wage. The Labor Department’s fact sheet is firm on this: a higher hourly wage cannot replace them. The benefits in the Mississippi determination show the pattern.

• Health and welfare. $5.92 an hour for every hour paid, up to 40 hours a week and 2,080 a year, or $236.80 a week. It can go into a bona fide plan or be paid as cash, with the wage and the cash fringe recorded separately. The figure was $5.55 on the July 2025 revision of the same determination.
• Vacation. One week after one year with the contractor or a predecessor, two weeks after two years, three after five, and four after fifteen. Length of service counts the whole span with the present contractor or its successor and with predecessor contractors doing similar work at the same federal facility, so drivers you take over from an incumbent at the same federal facility arrive with their years (29 CFR 4.173).
• Holidays. Eleven named days: New Year’s Day, Martin Luther King Jr.’s Birthday, Washington’s Birthday, Memorial Day, Juneteenth, Independence Day, Labor Day, Columbus Day, Veterans Day, Thanksgiving, and Christmas. An eligible full-time driver gets a full day’s pay up to 8 hours, and a driver who works the day gets that pay on top of the day’s work or another paid day off (29 CFR 4.174).
• Uniforms. If drivers must wear uniforms, the contractor supplies them or reimburses the cost, and where drivers launder them the determination expects $3.35 a week for cleaning unless the uniforms are wash and wear.
• Part-time drivers. They are owed the fringe benefits in proportion to their time: a driver on a regular 20-hour week is owed half the weekly health and welfare amount (29 CFR 4.176).

Is drive time paid?

Yes, when it is part of the work. The Act measures hours the way the Fair Labor Standards Act does (29 CFR 4.178). Driving from one pickup to the next counts as hours worked, and so does any time a driver is required to stay on duty or at a prescribed workplace, such as a wait the driver must spend with the van. Normal travel from home to the yard at the start of the day does not count (29 CFR 785.35). Travel as part of the day’s work does (29 CFR 785.38).

A mixed fleet has a trap. A driver who runs a VA trip in the morning and a Medicaid trip in the afternoon is doing covered work and other work in the same week. Unless your records separate the two, the rule treats the driver as doing covered work for the whole week, and the whole week is paid at the determination’s rate (29 CFR 4.179). Separate the hours by contract, or plan to pay the contract rate for the week. The timekeeping guide and the overtime guide cover how those hours are recorded.

How do you price it into a bid?

Add the fringe to the wage, then spread the cost over the hours a driver is actually on the road. As an example, use the Mississippi determination and a full-time shuttle bus driver paid for 2,080 hours in the first year:

1. Wages: 2,080 hours at $13.94 is $28,995.20.
2. Health and welfare: 2,080 hours at $5.92 is $12,313.60.
3. Paid holidays: 11 days at 8 hours is 88 of those paid hours with no driving, which leaves 1,992 working hours.
4. Total: $41,308.80, or $20.74 for each hour worked. That is about 49 percent above the $13.94 wage, and it leaves out payroll taxes, workers’ compensation, insurance, the vehicle, fuel, and overhead.

From the second year, a week of vacation takes another 40 hours out of the working total. The price will also move after award. The determination in effect on the anniversary date or at the start of an option period governs (FAR 52.222-43), and the contract price rises by what you actually pay more in wages, fringe benefits, and the payroll taxes and workers’ compensation that follow them. Overhead and profit are not adjusted. Send the contracting officer notice within 30 days after you receive the new determination, with payroll records that support it. The 37-cent rise in the health and welfare rate between the July 2025 and August 2026 revisions is about $770 a year for one full-time driver, which is the sort of figure that notice should show.

What do you post and keep?

Tell each worker the wages and fringe benefits that apply, or post the determination, and display the Labor Department’s Employee Rights on Government Contracts poster, publication WH 1313, where the work is done. The posters guide covers where that goes when drivers rarely visit an office.

Keep records for three years from the end of the work (29 CFR 4.185 and 4.6(g)). For each covered employee that means name, address, and Social Security number, the job classification, the wages paid and fringe benefits provided (or cash paid in place of them), daily and weekly hours, and any deductions. The Labor Department also says fringe payment records must be kept apart from wage records, and it lists mixing them among the common violations.

The penalties are mostly about the contract. Payments can be withheld or suspended for underpayment, and noncompliance can be grounds for terminating the contract (29 CFR 4.6(i)). A company found in violation can be placed on a list that bars it, and firms in which it holds a substantial interest, from federal contracts for three years unless the Secretary of Labor recommends otherwise because of unusual circumstances (41 U.S.C. 6706). Wage and Hour Division staff can inspect these records, and the wage and hour investigation guide covers what a visit looks like.

Keeping contract hours clear in HealthRide

Contract rates only help if each driver’s hours are right. In HealthRide, each driver’s clock-ins become timecards, and the timecard reports list the hours behind any pay period you pick, so the hours you check against a wage determination come from the record. Credential dates for each driver are tracked too, with reminders before they expire.