How to price a facility support contract

A facility or base support contract puts maintenance trades, general maintenance workers and office staff under one Service Contract Act wage determination. Each position has its own WD rate, and often its own workers' comp class. The price is the sum of a staffing plan, not one rate times hours.

This guide builds that plan in order: positions, classes, a burdened rate per code, a blended rate, and option years. The worked example uses WD 2015-5233 rev 35 for Harris County, Texas, and the same assumptions as our burdened labor rate guide, except workers' comp, which differs by position.

1. Build the staffing plan from the PWS

Some solicitations state a minimum staffing level. Most performance-based ones do not, and you build the plan from the workload:

• Preventive maintenance: the equipment inventory times the task hours and frequencies in the PWS or the manufacturer's schedule.
• Service calls: the agency's historical work order counts by trade, times your average hours per call, if the solicitation includes them.
• Coverage: hours the work order desk or a trade must be staffed, and the response times the PWS requires.

Coverage changes the head count. A full-time employee with eleven holidays and two weeks of vacation is paid for 2,080 hours but works 1,912. A desk that must be staffed 2,080 hours a year needs 2,080 ÷ 1,912 = 1.09 FTEs, or another employee who can cover it. Write each FTE count down as an assumption with the workload behind it.

2. Map every position to a class on the WD

Each service employee must be paid at least the WD wage and receive the WD fringe benefits for the class of work performed (FAR 52.222-41(c)(1)). Common facility classes on WD 2015-5233 rev 35:

The WD lists code 23410 as Heating, Ventilation and Air-Conditioning Mechanic. Each class has the duties described in the SCA Directory of Occupations. Three rules decide how you price the edges of the plan:

• Multi-skill workers. A worker who does work in two classes in a workweek must be paid the higher rate for all hours that week, unless your records show which hours went to each class (29 CFR 4.169). A general maintenance worker who also does electrical work is an electrician for that week unless you track the hours.
• Unlisted classes. If a position fits no listed class, such as a building automation technician, which this WD does not list, the contractor must submit SF 1444 for a conformed class and rate no later than 30 days after that worker starts (FAR 52.222-41(c)(2)). Price the rate you expect to be approved, not the lowest one nearby.
• The site manager. A manager employed in a bona fide executive or administrative capacity under 29 CFR part 541 is not a service employee (29 CFR 4.156), so the WD does not set that pay. Price the role in overhead or as a direct line, consistent with your accounting.

3. Watch for construction inside the contract

Facility support often includes repair and alteration work. Construction wage rates (Davis-Bacon) apply to construction work in a service contract when it is on a public building or public work, the contract has specific requirements for a substantial amount of it above the statute's threshold, and it is physically or functionally separate from the other work (FAR 22.402(b)(1)). They do not apply when the construction is incidental, or so merged or fragmented that it cannot be segregated (FAR 22.402(b)(2)). If the solicitation includes a construction WD, price those tasks on it. See SCA vs Davis-Bacon.

4. One burdened rate per code

Run the same build for every code: wage with PTO uplift, H&W, payroll taxes, workers' comp, then overhead, G&A and fee. What changes from code to code:

• The wage, and with it FICA and workers' comp.
• The workers' comp rate, which your carrier sets by class code. Trades usually cost more than clerical staff.
• Vacation, if you know the service dates of the people you will hire. On this WD vacation is 2 weeks after 1 year, 3 after 5 and 4 after 15, and service with predecessor contractors at the same facility counts (29 CFR 4.173).

What stays the same: H&W is a flat dollar amount per hour paid, up to 40 a week and 2,080 a year (29 CFR 4.175(a)(1)). For 2026 it is $5.92, or $5.42 on contracts covered by EO 13706, effective August 10, 2026; Hawaii's rates are $2.51 and $2.01. FUTA and SUTA are flat dollars per employee once wages pass the wage base. Both are a bigger share of the rate for a clerk than for a plumber.

5. The blended rate, and how to use it

Blended rate = total labor price ÷ total productive hours
Weight every code by its hours, never a simple average of rates

A blended rate is a check, not a pricing method. Use it to compare your bid with past bids and with the incumbent's price, if it is public. Do not price a different staffing mix with it: the blend is only true for the plan it came from.

Worked example: a nine-person plan in Harris County

Assumptions: nine full-time employees on WD 2015-5233 rev 35, each at the WD minimum. Standard H&W of $5.92, paid into a health plan; not covered by EO 13706. Eleven holidays and two weeks of vacation for everyone, so 1,912 productive hours each. SUTA 2.7% on a $9,000 wage base. Workers' comp 4.00% of payroll for trades and 0.50% for office staff. Overhead 10%, G&A 8% and fee 6%. Parts and materials $30,000 a year, with G&A and fee. Replace every assumption with your own.

One code, line by line: General Maintenance Worker

Every code in the plan

The scheduler earns 2 cents an hour more than a general maintenance worker but bills $1.04 less, because of the lower workers' comp rate. That is why each code gets its own build.

Staffing plan and annual price

Values are rounded to the cent at each step. A simple average of the seven bill rates is $44.89. Priced over 17,208 hours, that is $772,467.12, or $8,584.88 more than the plan, because it gives the one plumber the same weight as the three general maintenance workers. On a different mix the error can go the other way.

Option years

FAR 52.222-43(b) makes you warrant that your prices include no allowance for the increases the clause adjusts for later. The adjustment covers wages and fringe benefits required by a new WD, plus the related social security, unemployment tax and workers' comp, but no overhead, G&A or profit (FAR 52.222-43(d) and (e)). So labor stays at $763,882.24 every year. Parts and materials are not covered by the clause; here they are assumed to rise 3% a year.

When a new WD raises the rates after award, file the adjustment on time. See FAR 52.222-43 price adjustment, step by step.

Checks before you submit

• The WD number and revision match the one attached to the solicitation.
• Every position in the plan maps to a listed class, or you have priced a conformance.
• Every FTE count traces back to a workload or coverage assumption.
• Each code has its own workers' comp rate and its own burdened rate.
• The blended rate is weighted by hours and in line with your past bids.
• Labor is flat across option years; only parts, materials and other ODCs escalate.

Related guides

• How to build a burdened labor rate for an SCA bid
• How to read an SCA wage determination
• SCA vs Davis-Bacon: which applies to your contract

Sources

• SAM.gov: Wage Determination 2015-5233, revision 35
• eCFR: 29 CFR part 4, sections 4.156, 4.169, 4.173 and 4.175
• Acquisition.gov: FAR 52.222-41, Service Contract Labor Standards
• Acquisition.gov: FAR 52.222-43
• Acquisition.gov: FAR 22.402, Applicability

Last reviewed: November 2026. This guide is a pricing aid and general information, not legal or tax advice.