Current prevailing wage law in Minnesota may prevail
Sen. Chris Gerlach, R-Apple Valley, along with Rep. Steve Gottwalt, R-St. Cloud, are pushing legislation that would require a “time out” on the prevailing wage law during times of state budget deficit.
“It distorts the marketplace,” said Gerlach of the law, speaking at a morning press conference at the Capitol today (March 18).
Contractors on state-funded construction projects are required to pay prevailing wages. The Minnesota Taxpayers Association argues that Minnesota’s prevailing wage law adds as much as ten percent to construction costs.
According to Robert Heise, president of Associated Builders and Contractors of Minnesota, the way prevailing wages are caculated is statistically flawed.
Instead of caculating the wage by taking averages, the law may pick the highest wage out of a pool of workers, he argued.
Additionally, the surveys conducted to determine the wages in a given marketplace are poorly responded to, further flawing the data, he said.
Minnesota’s prevailing wage laws are bad as you can get, Heise argued.
Gerlach couched the legislation, just introduced, as not about trying to lower wages but instead saving the state money and putting more people to work.
Still, Gottwalt questioned whether his bill would get a committee hearing.
Omens are not good.
“The last thing Minnesota workers need right now is another proposal to balance the budget on their hard-working backs,” said House Majority Leader Tony Sertich, DFL-Chisholm, about the proposal.
“There are numerous studies that show there is no added cost to the state related to prevailing wage provisions. My GOP friends like to tout the benefits of the markets, so I would expect bipartisan support for fair wages for state workers that reflect market driven rates,” said Sertich.
