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Clauses · FAR · Small business, labor and socioeconomic

FAR 52.222-53 Exemption from Application of the Service Contract Labor Standards to Contracts for Certain Services—Requirements

Does the regulation require it to flow down?

Yes

(h): in subcontracts for the exempt services under the contract; (f) makes the prime responsible for the subs' compliance with all exemption conditions

Form
substance, including (h) itself
Reaches
all tiers

Checked against acquisition.gov on 2026-08-04 · edition MAY 2014 · base v0.9.3 Read the text ↗

What it makes you produce

One item for your checklist.

  1. Something you write

    Days to weeks, and nobody outside your company has to agree to it.

    • The evidence behind the five conditions, the expensive one being time records showing each service employee spends less than 20 percent of annualized available hours on this work

      FAR 52.222-53(c)

When it is used

Goes in when a contract for certain services (those listed in 22.1003-4(d): lodging, air transportation, real property maintenance, etc.) was exempted from SCA. Five conditions sustain the exemption: service regularly offered to non-government customers, catalog/market price, each employee spending less than 20% of their time on the government contract, compensation plan equal to the commercial one, and subcontractor selection via competitive procedure or justified sole source. Prescription 22.1006(e)(4). No dollar threshold.

Read closely

The other four: services offered and sold regularly to non-Government customers (a), established catalog or market prices (b), the same wage and fringe benefit plan you use commercially (d), and lower-tier selection by competitive procedure or a justified sole source (e). No paragraph here asks for a notification or sets a retention period. Paragraph (f) makes you answerable for your subcontractors' compliance with every condition, and paragraph (h) carries the substance down.

The 9 templates that name it, with the line
233RTX Flowdown of U.S. Government Contract Clauses Under U.S. Government ContractsRTXline 1281166Northrop Grumman CTM-P-ST-001 — U.S. Government Firm Fixed Price Order (Not for Commercial Products and Services)Northrop Grummanline 2277166Northrop Grumman CTM-P-ST-003 — U.S. Government T&M Order (Not for Commercial Products and Services)Northrop Grummanline 2219168Northrop Grumman CTM-P-ST-004 — U.S. Government Cost Reimbursement Order (Not for Commercial Products and Services)Northrop Grummanline 2317255GD Mission Systems SCM-TMP-005 — General Provisions, Firm Fixed Price PO under U.S. Government Contract (Non-Commercial)General Dynamicsline 968243GD Mission Systems SCM-TMP-048 — T&M Purchase Orders for Non-Commercial Items in Support of a U.S. Government ContractGeneral Dynamicsline 1957122GD Mission Systems SCM-TMP-095 — FFP Purchase Orders for Commercial/COTS Products or Services in Support of a U.S. Government ContractGeneral Dynamicsline 1009107Honeywell — Supplemental Provisions Under Fixed Price U.S. Government Contracts for Commercial ItemsHoneywellline 257178AAR Component Services NY — U.S. Government Contract FAR and DFARS Clauses Incorporated by ReferenceAAR Corpline 705

Source: acquisition.gov, FAR 52.222-53 + prescription 22.1006(e)(4); 52.212-5 (MAR 2026) (verified 2026-08-04)

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.