Login
Search Button
Button
Home
Who is ABC?
About ABC of MI
ABC Staff
Board of Directors
Michigan Chapters
Greater MI
Southeastern MI
Western MI
Contact Us
Member Benefits
Discount Programs
Verizon Discounts
Discount Fuel Purchasing
Fleet Benefits
Workers' Compensation Insurance
Health Benefit Trust
Join Now
Member Directory
Politics, Policy & Advocacy
Issues
Grassroots Advocacy
Contact Your Legislator
Grassroots Toolkit
ABC Action Center
Fundraising
Training & Safety
Safety
MIOSHA
STEP Training
Chapter Safety Training
Drug & Alcohol Free Workplace
Training Partners
News
Michigan Merit Magazine
Advertising Opportunities
News Releases
Construction Executive
Sign up
Events
State Legislative Day
Michigan Construction Leadership Summit
Archives
2020
November 2020 (1)
September 2020 (1)
August 2020 (1)
June 2020 (1)
May 2020 (2)
January 2020 (1)
2019
November 2019 (2)
October 2019 (1)
2017
May 2017 (1)
April 2017 (1)
January 2017 (1)
2016
December 2016 (1)
November 2016 (1)
May 2016 (1)
2015
October 2015 (1)
June 2015 (1)
May 2015 (1)
April 2015 (1)
January 2015 (1)
2014
December 2014 (1)
August 2014 (1)
July 2014 (1)
June 2014 (1)
May 2014 (1)
Categories
Uncategorized (0)
Legislative Updates (5)
News Release (25)
Politics & Elections (4)
Regulatory News (0)
Legal (3)
ABC of Michigan News Releases
Return to Previous Page
Prevailing wage repeal is Legislature’s first bill of 2015
Posted @ 1/15/2015 6:03 AM
Posted in
Legislative Updates
,
News Release
|
0 Comments
Michigan taxpayers, public schools and universities will get a budget break this year if priority
House
and
Senate
legislation to repeal the “prevailing wage” law is finally passed.
“A repeal of the outdated law will mean school and university budgets, as well as all state government, will not be forced to overspend on construction, saving taxpayers as much as $250 million annually in the educational construction sector alone,” says
Chris Fisher
, Associated Builders and Contractors (ABC) of Michigan president. “The fact that the bills are the first introduced in the 2015 session indicates the importance of prevailing wage reform to easing the strain on state and education budgets.”
House Bills 4001-4003, sponsored by
Rep. Amanda Price
(R-Park Township),
Rep. Brad Jacobsen
(R-Oxford) and
Rep. Aric Nesbitt
(R-Lawton) would remove the stipulation that work and compensation rules on publicly funded construction projects be determined exclusively by union agreements. Similar legislation in the Senate (Senate Bill 1), will be introduced by
Senate Majority Leader Arlan Meekhof
(R-West Olive), to mirror language in the House bills and would allow construction companies to pay current market rates found in the private sector rather than ones set by union contracts, which only cover a small slice of the Michigan construction workforce.
Senators Peter MacGregor
(R-Rockford), and
Dave Robertson
(R-Grand Blanc), will be sponsors of Senate Bills 2 and 3 in the package to complete the repeal.
The non-partisan Anderson Economic Group
says $2.25 billion could have been saved over the past decade
for public school and university construction alone, according to its analysis conducted in 2013. Although the State of Michigan reports that the average free market construction wage is already higher than most other professions at a healthy $47,000 annually, prevailing wage drives the rates up to artificial levels as much as 60 percent higher for some trades when performing governmental construction work.
“Nearly every peer-reviewed study concludes that prevailing wage is a job killer and tax dollar waster,” Fisher explains. Far from ‘prevailing,’ the current law dictates that unions, which represent only 18 percent of the construction workforce, set wage rates and determine inefficient trade classifications for the rest of the industry. Such decisions are not subject to any oversight or negotiation and vary from trade to trade and from locality to locality, creating a red tape nightmare for contractors, who must monitor tens of thousands of wage scenarios annually.
“Because construction is such a key jobs provider in Michigan’s economy,” says Fisher, “prevailing wage repeal will help create more good paying jobs and help the industry compete with more than 44 other states that have no such artificial mandates or that base wage rates on more accurate and reliable measures. Michigan is currently tied for worst in the US because it is one of just six states that has a prevailing wage exclusively determined by union classifications.”
“Prevailing wage repeal is simply good public policy,” says
Chris Beckering
, vice president of strategic business operations at
Pioneer Construction
in Grand Rapids. “Michigan taxpayers should not be paying inflated prices on public construction projects. Michigan citizens deserve the additional job opportunities and fiscal accountability that will result by eliminating this antiquated mandate. It’s time for repeal.”
###
Trackback
Print
Permalink
Trackback URL:
prevailing wage
,
michigan
,
taxpayers
,
Amanda Price
,
Aric Nesbitt
,
Brad Jacobsen
,
Arlan Meekhof
,
Dave Robertson
,
Peter MacGregor
Share this post
«
Supreme Court will hear ABC Appeal on Lansing Prevailing Wage
Michigan sees nation’s best year-over-year improvement in construction employment
»
Possibly related posts:
ABC of Michigan Announces Jeff Wiggins as New State Director
ABC of Michigan PAC Announces Endorsements
Prevailing wage repeal is Legislature’s first bill of 2015
Comments are closed for this post, but if you have spotted an error or have additional info that you think should be in this post, feel free to contact us.
Browse all tags