Clauses · FAR · Small business, labor and socioeconomic
FAR 52.219-14 Limitations on Subcontracting
Does the regulation require it to flow down?
No
No flow-down paragraph — the prime's obligation; the sub comes in either as a 'similarly situated entity' or as the excess to be capped
A clause can reach your subcontract without a mandate. Once it is in your document, it is a contract term all the same. The missing mandate is a fact about the regulation. It is not a ruling on your order.
Checked against acquisition.gov on 2026-08-09 · edition Oct 2022 (DoD: deviation 2021-O0008 may appear) · base v0.9.3 Read the text ↗
What it makes you produce
One item for your checklist.
Nothing to send, ever
There is no paperwork here. It is a rule you follow while you perform the work.
Keeping the share of the price paid to firms that are not similarly situated under the limit — 50 percent for services and for supplies, 85 percent for general construction, 75 percent for special trade construction
FAR 52.219-14(e)
When it is used
Set-aside contracts (total/partial, 8(a), HUBZone, SDVOSB, WOSB); no threshold of its own.
Read closely
No paragraph of this clause asks for a certificate, a report or submitted evidence; compliance is measured by the end of the base term and of each option or performance period (paragraph (f)). For a subcontractor it decides how much of the work can be routed your way, and being small or certified yourself is what makes the routing possible.
Source: acquisition.gov, FAR 52.219-14, codified text read at FAC 2026-01 (effective 2026-03-13), prescribed at 19.507(e) with designation (Oct 2022); the RFO Part 52 disposition table prescribes it at 19.104-3(c) and prints (Deviation Date), so the model text is rewritten rather than carried over (verified 2026-08-09)
This is research, not legal advice. It states what the regulation says about this clause and cites the paragraph behind it. It does not rule on your order, and it does not rule on whether a prime's markings are correct.