Prevailing Wage & Apprenticeship

The 5x multiplier is only yours if your payroll records can prove it.

The Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) created the largest clean energy tax incentive structure in US history. But the enhanced credit rates most developers rely on, up to 30% Investment Tax Credit (ITC) or $0.025/kWh Production Tax Credit (PTC), require documented Prevailing Wage & Apprenticeship (PWA) compliance across each contractor and subcontractor on the project. Empact manages that documentation from the first day of construction through the full tax credit lifecycle.

Why Compliance Matters

Payroll errors across any contractor can put your project's enhanced credit rate at risk.

PWA compliance requires paying federally determined prevailing wages to each laborer and mechanic on the project, across the general contractor and all subcontractors, and satisfying three separate apprenticeship tests covering labor hours, ratios, and participation requirements.

Tax equity investors and credit buyers require paystubs and timecards before deals close. If those records are incomplete, inaccurate, or missing, your deal won't close on schedule.

Empact's platform identifies an average of 1.6 compliance issues per contractor per week. Most are caught and corrected in real time. Without active monitoring, they compound, and cannot be reconstructed after the fact.

0x

PWA multiplier on the base ITC rate

0.0

compliance issues per contractor per week identified by Empact

What's at Stake

The multiplier is worth hundreds of millions. Non-compliance costs you it.

PWA compliance is the single largest driver of enhanced tax credit value. Projects that fail to document it forfeit the multiplier entirely.

Investment Tax Credit (ITC)

Section 48E Clean Electricity Investment Tax Credit

Base rate
6%
With PWA compliance
5x Multiplier30%
With Domestic Content + PWA
40%

Non-compliance drops you back to base rate, or triggers full recapture.

Production Tax Credit (PTC)

Section 45Y Clean Electricity Production Tax Credit

Base rate
$0.005/kWh
With PWA compliance
5x Multiplier$0.025/kWh
With Domestic Content + PWA
$0.0275/kWh

Non-compliance drops you back to base rate, or triggers full recapture.

Empact manages PWA complexity so your credits are protected.

Certified Payroll Management

Empact's platform and expert team collect, review, and validate paystubs and timecards across each contractor and subcontractor, averaging 1.6 issues resolved per contractor per week before they reach your counsel or investors. Empact validates against original certified payroll records, not just payroll system exports, so your documentation holds up under IRS scrutiny.

Apprenticeship Tracking

Empact tracks registered apprentice labor hours in real time across your full project workforce, ensuring compliance with federal apprenticeship ratios before your window closes.

Audit-Ready Documentation

Empact compiles comprehensive PWA compliance reporting and audit materials across each contractor from day one, so your records are defensible for the full ITC recapture period or PTC term.

Why Empact

Empact is the compliance and risk management partner clean energy developers and investors rely on.

Purpose-built for clean energy

Empact's team combines legal, technical, and regulatory expertise built specifically for the clean energy market, so each PWA obligation is identified, documented, and defensible.

Built for the complexity of clean energy compliance.

We don't hand you a checklist. Empact conducts the review, organizes the documentation, and delivers certifications your tax counsel can rely on.

Monitoring doesn't stop at close

Empact supports developers through the full ITC recapture period or PTC term, up to 10 years, so compliance issues that arise during operations and maintenance never become a surprise.

What Empact Delivers

Everything your tax counsel, investors, and insurers need, delivered audit-ready.

Certified payroll collected, reviewed, and validated across each contractor and subcontractor

Apprenticeship labor hours tracked, with ratio compliance reviewed against the applicable apprenticeship program standards

Compliance issues identified and resolved before they reach your counsel or investors

PWA documentation validated against original certified payroll records, not payroll system exports

Audit-ready compliance package defensible for the full ITC recapture period or PTC term

Documentation structured to meet the standard tax equity investors and insurers require at close

Your PWA compliance is documented and defensible from construction through the full tax credit lifecycle.

Empact works alongside your team and counsel from deal financing through the full tax credit lifecycle, so your 5x multiplier is secured and defensible.

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