Clauses · FAR · Small business, labor and socioeconomic
FAR 52.222-43 Fair Labor Standards Act and Service Contract Labor Standards-Price Adjustment (Multiple Year and Option Contracts)
Does the regulation require it to flow down?
No
No regulatory flow-down mandate exists — 22.1006(c)(1) speaks only to the contracting officer. The SCA itself reaches your subcontract through 52.222-41(k), not through this clause. Primes flow it down back-to-back because the mechanism only works if it exists at both levels: if the prime can claim an adjustment from the Government for a new wage determination and you cannot claim it from the prime, the increase lands entirely on you. This is the rare mirroring clause that a sub should WANT in its subcontract
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 2026-08-05 · edition Aug 2018 · base v0.9.3 Read the text ↗
What it makes you produce
One item for your checklist.
Nothing to send now
It does not hold the order. It decides what money moves later — what you can claim, what can be claimed from you, and what can be held back — and none of that changes after signature.
- FAR 52.222-43(f)
The claim for the wage-determination increase — a statement of the amount claimed, the change in fixed hourly rates on a time-and-materials or labor-hour order, and supporting data including payroll records
Owed when a new wage determination raises the wages or fringe benefits you are obliged to pay — the notice is due within 30 days of receiving that determination unless the period is extended in writing
When it is used
FAR 22.1006(c)(1): fixed-price, time-and-materials or labor-hour SERVICE contracts that carry 52.222-41 (Service Contract Labor Standards), where the contract is a multiple year contract or has options to renew, and exceeds the simplified acquisition threshold ($350k since 2025-10-01). The single-year twin is 52.222-44. Either may be used at or below the SAT at the contracting officer's discretion. Not a supplies clause and not a construction clause — construction runs on Davis-Bacon (52.222-6).
Read closely
The adjustment covers the actual increase you are legally obliged to pay plus the accompanying social security, unemployment tax and workers' compensation increases, and nothing else: no overhead, no general and administrative cost, no profit on the increase. Miss the 30 days and the argument becomes waiver rather than arithmetic. The mechanism only works where the same clause exists at both levels, which is why this is the rare mirroring clause a subcontractor wants in the document.
The 3 templates that name it, with the line
Source: acquisition.gov, FAR 52.222-43, FAR 22.1006(c) and FAR 52.212-5(c)(3) (verified 2026-08-05); E.O. 14026 rescission by E.O. 14236 and E.O. 13706 retention per the FAR Council RFO Part 22 model deviation, via the VA class deviation of 2025-11-13
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.