PwC combines tax and labor compliance expertise with AI-enabled workflows to help organizations manage compliance more confidently across projects, contractors, and EPCs.

Prevailing wage compliance that safeguards your clean energy tax credits

Why PWA matters

Compliance unlocks five times the value. Non-compliance puts it at risk.

The Inflation Reduction Act can increase qualifying energy tax credits up to 30% — five times the 6% base rate. The condition: documented compliance with prevailing wage and apprenticeship requirements across every project, trade, and contractor. Falling short can result in reduced credits, correction penalties, and increased examination risk, reinforcing the need for a structured, technology-enabled approach across your project portfolio.

One solution. Messy payroll in, governed data out.

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Prevailing wage and apprenticeship compliance services

See the approach in action

PWA compliance fails in the details, not the intent

Enhanced Inflation Reduction Act incentives require documented compliance across prevailing wage and apprenticeship requirements — tracked across projects, trades, locations, and workers.

Most organizations understand the rules. The challenge is operational: coordinating contractors, normalizing inconsistent data, and maintaining governed records across a portfolio of active projects.

Your team and ours — working from the same compliance framework

PwC brings experienced tax and labor compliance professionals together with your internal teams, EPCs, and contractors — supported by AI-enabled technology that keeps workflows moving and data governed.

The visibility to act and the evidence to defend

AI is embedded throughout our PWA workflows — accelerating intake, improving issue detection, and reducing manual effort across the compliance lifecycle. But every finding, recommendation, and deliverable is reviewed by experienced PwC professionals.

Click on the tabs below to learn more.

Exception management

Every flagged issue is tracked from detection through resolution, with assigned owners, status updates, and a complete audit trail.

Portfolio dashboards

Real-time views of wage compliance, apprenticeship ratios, and open exceptions — across projects, contractors, and your broader portfolio.

Compliance documentation

Project-specific documentation packages — including certified payroll, wage determinations, apprenticeship records, and correction evidence — organized, governed, and readily accessible.

Audit-ready evidence

A governed and defensible record of your compliance program — designed to support IRS examination and Department of Labor inquiry.

Human-in-the-loop

Our specialists review AI-assisted outputs before deliverables are finalized – combining automation with experienced professional judgment.

Judgment, technology, and coordination — designed to work together

PWA compliance requires more than tracking data and more than applying rules. It requires interpreting evolving regulations, coordinating across stakeholders, and building a governed evidence trail that stands up under examination. How you resource compliance shapes your ability to safeguard the credits your projects have earned.

PwC does not replace your team's role in compliance — we strengthen it.

Our engagement model works alongside your tax, legal, operations, EPC and contractor teams — helping organizations build capability, consistency, and confidence as your program matures.

Frequently asked questions

PWA compliance refers to the prevailing wage and apprenticeship requirements that qualifying clean energy projects are required to satisfy to receive enhanced tax credit amounts under the Inflation Reduction Act. Projects that satisfy these requirements may qualify for up to five times the base credit amount — the difference between a 6% and 30% investment tax credit. Compliance generally requires paying prevailing wages determined by the DOL, meeting apprenticeship labor hour requirements, and maintaining governed documentation across every project, trade, and contractor.

Prevailing wage requirements mandate that workers on qualifying energy projects are paid at rates determined by the Department of Labor for similar work in the applicable geographic area. Failing to satisfy these requirements — or to properly document compliance — may reduce available tax credits and trigger correction penalties. Because wage determinations vary by location, trade, and timing, ongoing monitoring and specialized interpretation are essential.

PWA compliance can involve coordinating numerous contractors, normalizing payroll data across inconsistent formats, mapping wage determinations by location and trade, and maintaining audit-ready records. A PWA consultant provides labor compliance expertise, technology to streamline data collection and analysis, and the tax expertise needed to interpret evolving regulations and guide corrective action — reducing the risk of credit loss.

Labor compliance services provide the specialist resources, technology, and governance frameworks that most organizations lack internally. This can include program design, certified payroll collection and normalization, automated exception detection, apprenticeship ratio tracking, executive dashboards, structured reporting, and audit-ready documentation support.

Under the Inflation Reduction Act, taxpayers and their contractors are required to pay workers prevailing wages established by the Department of Labor for the construction, alteration, or repair of qualifying facilities. They are required to also meet apprenticeship labor hour requirements and document good-faith efforts when qualified apprentices are unavailable. The PWA requirements apply across the following Sections of the Internal Revenue Code: 45, 45Q, 45V, 45Y, 45Z, 48, 48C, 48E; prevailing wage only: Section 45U.

Contact us

Nicole Brigati

Energy, manufacturing and infrastructure incentives Leader, PwC US

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