The FALIB®-Mr (Master Report) provides a clear view of how Davis-Bacon wage requirements affect labor costs. It identifies shortfalls when wages or fringes fall below compliance levels, and calculates the necessary adjustments to wages to close those gaps. At the same time, it highlights surpluses where contributions exceed requirements.

Beyond direct wages, FALIB®-Mr tracks the ripple impact—the secondary increase in fringe-related costs (such as PTO, retirement contributions, and payroll taxes) that occur when base wages are raised to meet Davis-Bacon standards. This ensures decision-makers understand not just the immediate adjustment, but the full financial effect of compliance.

In short, FALIB®-Mr allows contractors to adjust wages confidently, reflect shortfalls accurately, and account for surpluses and ripple effects in a single, transparent report.

Direct Wages

What it captures: Regular, overtime, and double-time hours and pay by worker/category for direct, site-facing labor.
Why it matters: This is the first pillar of the rate. Underbid this and every downstream burden and fringe is wrong. BreakEven+ preserves the hour types so prevailing-wage uplift doesn’t get flattened into a single average.

Direct Salaries

What it captures: Direct, salaried labor tied to jobs (e.g., superintendents, field engineers) with their bonuses where applicable.
Why it matters: These roles often slip between overhead and direct. FALIB-Mr shows them explicitly so labor build-ups remain defendable in certified payroll narratives and indirect allocations.

Direct Insurances (Fringe—Fixed Premiums)

What it captures: Health, dental, vision, life, and other monthly/annual employee premiums attributed to direct labor.
Why it matters: Flat premiums don’t ripple with wages. BreakEven+ keeps fixed-premium benefits separate from percentage-based burdens so the model doesn’t compound costs incorrectly.

Direct Paid Time Off

What it captures: Holidays, PTO, sick, and other paid leave attributed to direct employees.
Why it matters: PTO is paid but non-productive time. If it isn’t loaded into your hourly rate, your “low” price is just hidden risk.

Direct Retirement Match

What it captures: Employer retirement contributions/matches for direct labor.
Why it matters: This is a wage-based fringe. When Davis-Bacon pushes an hourly wage higher, retirement cost ripples up unless capped—BreakEven+ shows that effect.

Direct Burden

What it captures: Employer payroll taxes (FICA/Medicare), FUTA/SUTA, workers’ comp, general liability surcharges, etc., applied correctly to the wage base.
Why it matters: These are percentage-based and do ripple when wages increase. BreakEven+ applies them to the correct base to avoid double-counting fringe.

Direct Adjusted Fringe (Compliance Alignment)

What it captures: The required compliant fringe rate (e.g., Davis-Bacon) vs. what you currently provide, calculating any shortfall to be added to cash wages or met via benefits.
Why it matters: This is the heart of prevailing-wage integrity. BreakEven+ tells you exactly how much must be added per hour to stay compliant—and lets you choose cash wage vs. benefit adjustments—so you price once and stay audit-ready.

Direct Adjusted Wages / Direct Adjusted Salaries

What it captures: The updated effective pay rates after adding any fringe shortfalls (or accounting for surpluses), across hourly and salary roles.
Why it matters: Your rate is built on adjusted reality, not wishful wage tables. Estimators see the rate that will actually hit payroll.

Direct Ripple Impact

What it captures: The “Davis-Bacon Ripple”—the secondary cost increase to burdens and fringes that occurs because base wages were adjusted to meet prevailing wage.
Why it matters: Most spreadsheets miss this. BreakEven+ quantifies it so you don’t eat the difference at close-out.

Indirect Wages & Indirect Salaries

What it captures: Office/admin/clerical and non-billable labor supporting operations, with their real hours or the salary equivalents.
Why it matters: The base for indirect rates—Overhead (OH) and G&A—must be clear and consistent, especially for public-sector cost narratives.

Indirect Insurances, PTO, and Retirement (Fringe)

What it captures: Benefits and paid time off for indirect personnel.
Why it matters: These flow into the loaded indirect pools and later into OH/G&A calculations.

Indirect Burden

What it captures: Payroll taxes, workers’ comp, GL on indirect labor.
Why it matters: Establishes a transparent and auditable total cost for the indirect labor pools.

Indirect Rates

What it captures: How the allowable indirect totals load into rate calculations (e.g., which costs go to Overhead vs. G&A, and at what effective percentages).
Why it matters: BreakEven+ applies indirects to the correct base (e.g., direct base wages rather than compounded, fringe-inflated wages) to prevent stacking errors and to align with standard cost-allocation practice.

Operations and Non-Operations (Allowable vs. Unallowable)

What it captures:
Non-labor operating expenses — IT, rent, training, software subscriptions, fuel, phones, vehicles, janitorial, insurance add-ons, etc. These are the real overhead costs that exist whether a job is active or not, and they must be forecasted and allocated so that a labor rate is not built in isolation from the cost of running the company.

Why it matters for rate forecasting (all contractors):
Operations costs are one of the largest drivers of overhead. If they are not allocated into the rate model, the “break-even” you estimate does not reflect your actual financial reality — meaning your bid may win on paper and lose in execution because you never recovered overhead in the price.

GovCon-specific note — why allowables/unallowables matter:
The distinction between “allowable” and “unallowable” is not a Davis-Bacon or prevailing-wage concept; it is strictly a GovCon/FAR/CAS accounting requirement. Under that framework, unallowable costs must be excluded from the pools used to calculate overhead and G&A rates so that the rates used in proposals remain compliant and defendable. BreakEven+ keeps that separation explicit so the same model can support forecasting for any contractor while remaining rate-compliant for GovCon when required.

Hourly Labor Rate: Single-Element Base (Direct Labor)

What it captures: The step-through from direct base wage → burden & fringe → Overhead → G&A (Includes Total Cost input G&A)→ (optional IR&D/B&P/OCC) → Prime Cost (break-even) → Profit markup → Sell rate.
Why it matters: This is the story your estimator needs and your CO can accept: one clear build that shows where every dollar sits and why your sell rate is justified.

Pass-Through Components

What it captures: Travel, equipment, COGS, and subcontractors with optional markups.
Why it matters: Pass-throughs can look “cheap” in a bid but kill margin later. BreakEven+ blends these into the overall revenue picture without contaminating labor rates.

Cost of Money (Optional)

What it captures: A capital charge on net book value of selected assets, if you choose to include it in your modeling.
Why it matters: Useful for long-duration public work and facility-intensive operations where carrying cost should be considered in price.

Totals and Profits

What it captures: Hours, direct and indirect loaded labor, indirect ops, BreakEven rate, applied profit (fee), pass-through revenue and markup, and the final sell rate.
Why it matters: One final line that decision-makers can point to: “Here is our break-even and sell rate; here’s how we got there.”