Prevailing Wage

[indago]

Journalist Monica Davey wrote for The New York Times 2 May 2015:
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A bill that would end prescribed wages on public construction projects in Indiana awaits the signature of Gov. Mike Pence. And Henry Burks, a union electrician who lives near Indianapolis, is bracing. Mr. Burks, 57, is putting off plans to build a patio at his house. He is delaying painting and landscaping, too. And he said he is worried about how to continue helping his grown children with college costs if his income drops, as he firmly expects. “This is going to inhibit me from taking care of my family,” Mr. Burks, who makes about $60,000 a year, said the other day as he took a break from installing conduit inside a corn processing plant in Lafayette. “Our wages will go down. The contractors we work for won’t get as many jobs. Maybe I’ll have to find work outside of Indiana.”

...Efforts to end prevailing-wage laws are emerging in statehouses around the nation. Opponents say these efforts would lower wages and see them as a new front in a battle by increasingly Republican legislatures to weaken labor unions.

...Ultimately, the bill ending the wage regulations passed with a narrow margin in each chamber. Some Republicans voted no, as did all Democrats, who said the change will lower wages, attract out-of-state workers, encourage less training and fewer apprenticeships, and ultimately save the taxpayers nothing. “When you use the least-skilled, least-costly labor, what you wind up with is cost overruns, construction that doesn’t last as long and short-term costs that are not projected in the initial bid,” said State Representative Scott Pelath, the Democrats’ leader in the House. “What we see here is a willingness to look only at one side of the ledger and a trend of ignoring what creates real prosperity.”
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article (http://www.nytimes.com/2015/05/03/us/gop-expands-labor-battle-to-laws-setting-state-construction-wages.html?ref=todayspaper)

Back to square one. Same arguments again as put forth over eight decades ago. Just a recycling. We never learn.

[Gunny]

Journalist Monica Davey wrote for The New York Times 2 May 2015:
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A bill that would end prescribed wages on public construction projects in Indiana awaits the signature of Gov. Mike Pence. And Henry Burks, a union electrician who lives near Indianapolis, is bracing. Mr. Burks, 57, is putting off plans to build a patio at his house. He is delaying painting and landscaping, too. And he said he is worried about how to continue helping his grown children with college costs if his income drops, as he firmly expects. “This is going to inhibit me from taking care of my family,” Mr. Burks, who makes about $60,000 a year, said the other day as he took a break from installing conduit inside a corn processing plant in Lafayette. “Our wages will go down. The contractors we work for won’t get as many jobs. Maybe I’ll have to find work outside of Indiana.”

...Efforts to end prevailing-wage laws are emerging in statehouses around the nation. Opponents say these efforts would lower wages and see them as a new front in a battle by increasingly Republican legislatures to weaken labor unions.

...Ultimately, the bill ending the wage regulations passed with a narrow margin in each chamber. Some Republicans voted no, as did all Democrats, who said the change will lower wages, attract out-of-state workers, encourage less training and fewer apprenticeships, and ultimately save the taxpayers nothing. “When you use the least-skilled, least-costly labor, what you wind up with is cost overruns, construction that doesn’t last as long and short-term costs that are not projected in the initial bid,” said State Representative Scott Pelath, the Democrats’ leader in the House. “What we see here is a willingness to look only at one side of the ledger and a trend of ignoring what creates real prosperity.”
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article (http://www.nytimes.com/2015/05/03/us/gop-expands-labor-battle-to-laws-setting-state-construction-wages.html?ref=todayspaper)

Back to square one. Same arguments again as put forth over eight decades ago. Just a recycling. We never learn.

Earn what you're worth or go home.

[LongTermGuy]

Earn what you're worth or go home.


Absolutely....Next!

[aboutime]

We have a wannabe president in Washington who is OVERPAID, and the prevailing wage for what he is qualified to do is, and always will be ZERO.

[Jeff]

We have a wannabe president in Washington who is OVERPAID, and the prevailing wage for what he is qualified to do is, and always will be ZERO.

Dang AT I am starting to think you don't like Obama none to much. :laugh: And I must admit we agree on this one sure enough.

[fj1200]

Back to square one. Same arguments again as put forth over eight decades ago. Just a recycling. We never learn.

I'm not quite sure your point. Recycling arguments for or against PW? :dunno:

[Gunny]

I'm not quite sure your point. Recycling arguments for or against PW? :dunno:

He has nothing BUT recycled arguments.

[indago]

I'm not quite sure your point. Recycling arguments for or against PW? :dunno:

Arguments and discussions on both sides, for and against the Davis-Bacon Act "over eight decades ago".

"By the time the Davis-Bacon Act became law, seven states had already enacted prevailing wage statutes — most notably, Kansas, which passed the first state prevailing wage law in 1891.

New York also had a prevailing wage statute on the books before the turn of the century, nearly 30 years before the first version of the Act was introduced in Congress in 1926 — in the midst of the roaring twenties.

By the middle of the 1920s, the United States government was already greatly involved in heavy construction projects ranging from flood control and dam building to expanding and housing the institutions of government.

Federal and state governments were preparing to become even more active and sought to protect themselves from falling victim to “fly-by-night” “cut throat” contractors who performed “shoddy” work with “exploited”, “low-skilled” and “imported” workforce."

article (http://www.solidarity.com/Davis-Bacon.htm)

The prevailing wage law was enabled to prevent contractors from importing labor into an area and paying them less than what was the prevailing wage in the area where the construction was taking place, and upending the local economy, displacing local workers, much like is done today with employers bringing into the local economy illegal aliens, paying them substandard wages. Employers could still import labor, but they were required to pay them the same wages as locals.

[indago]

Davis-Bacon Act

Introduced in Congress by Congressman Robert L. Bacon (R) and Senator James J. Davis (R). The House and Senate passed the bill as introduced. President Herbert Hoover (R) signed the Davis-Bacon Act on March 31, 1931.



An Alabama contractor won a contract in 1927 from the Veterans' Bureau to construct a hospital in Long Island, New York, with his low bid aided by importation of African-American workers from the South. Congressman Robert L. Bacon, a Republican who represented Long Island from March 1923 until his death on September 12, 1938, introduced a bill in the U.S. House of Representatives to require payment of prevailing wages on Federal projects. He said of the workers on the hospital project, "They were herded onto this job, they were housed in shacks, they were paid a very low wage, and . . . it seems to me that the federal government should not engage in construction work in any state and undermine the labor conditions and the labor wages paid in that state."

Bacon considered his proposal a matter of fairness. He wanted to give local contractors and labor a "fair break" in getting government contracts:

If the local contractor is successful in obtaining the bid, it means that local labor will be employed because that local contractor is going to continue in business in that community after the work is done. If an outside contractor gets the contract, and there is no discrimination against the honest contractor, it means that he will have to pay the prevailing wages, just like the local contractor.

Davis-Bacon (http://www.fhwa.dot.gov/highwayhistory/road/s13.cfm)

[indago]

He has nothing BUT recycled arguments.

Another snivel...

You're starting early today...

[fj1200]

Arguments and discussions on both sides, for and against the Davis-Bacon Act "over eight decades ago".

...

The prevailing wage law was enabled to prevent contractors from importing labor into an area and paying them less than what was the prevailing wage in the area where the construction was taking place, and upending the local economy, displacing local workers, much like is done today with employers bringing into the local economy illegal aliens, paying them substandard wages. Employers could still import labor, but they were required to pay them the same wages as locals.

OK. So you're for DB and PW laws in general? And you're aware of the racial arguments for DB?

[Gunny]

Another snivel...

You're starting early today...

Yeah, I get it. You got nothing but cut n paste arguments and think the lame-a$$ counter attack works for you. You need to changer your userID to "I'm a Joke". :laugh:

[indago]

Yeah, I get it... (and other and sundry aberrations, ramifications, fixations, lamentations, hallucinations, and incantations, and assorted snivels)

Don't you have any support for local economies?

[Gunny]

Don't you have any support for local economies?

Sure I do. I just don't have any support for whiners like you.

[fj1200]

Don't you have any support for local economies?

Let me get this straight, you are against the police state when it involves asset seizures, overbearing cops, etc. but are for the police state when it involves mandating what private enterprises must pay employees. Did I get that right?

[darin]

Unions feel citizens OWE them a livlihood. Governments role is to SAVE THE MONEY they steal -erp..."collect" from the citizens.


We have a wannabe president in Washington who is OVERPAID, and the prevailing wage for what he is qualified to do is, and always will be ZERO.

He's not so much overpaid as he's over-authorized. Over-empowered.

[Gunny]

Unions feel citizens OWE them a livlihood. Governments role is to SAVE THE MONEY they steal -erp..."collect" from the citizens.



He's not so much overpaid as he's over-authorized. Over-empowered.

Not a whole lot of difference between labor unions and the US government. Same mentality applies. Both are supposed to work for the people. Instead they just feed off of us.