May 14, 2015
Have you renewed your membership this year with NAFC??? Stay up to date on all the recent developments related to fair contracting. See the link below and support NAFC today!!!
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Washington, DC 20006
Please be advised that a fee of membership in the National Alliance for Fair Contracting is not deductible for tax purposes under IRC § 6113.
5/1/2015
WASHINGTON, DC (May 1, 2015) — The following statement was released today by North America’s Building Trades Unions, in reaction to the defeat of an amendment to H.R.2029 – The Military Construction and Veterans Affairs and Related Agencies Appropriations Act of 2016 – that would have denied enforcement of the Davis-Bacon Act prevailing wage statute on military construction projects:
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.”
Steve Lyons, Wisconsin Contractor Coalition
9 a.m. CDT April 25, 2015
Currently there is an effort to repeal or substantially minimize Wisconsin’s prevailing wage law. This would hurt Wisconsin businesses, its skilled labor force and our economy.
Wisconsin’s prevailing wage regulations require that construction workers on public works be paid a specified combined wage and benefit package, broken down by trade and location. The rates are set based on the wages and benefits paid on projects similar to public works in the local area.
This public procurement regulation has recently raised two questions: Should the government interfere with the “free market?” Should construction on public works have a special minimum wage regulation?
Government is the single largest purchaser of local construction services. In 2012, in Wisconsin, 20 percent of all construction purchases were public works.
By Karen Caffarini and Carrie Napoleon Post-Tribune
April, 17, 2015, 5:04 PM
Local elected and union officials and contractors are expressing concern about the area’s economy, quality of life for its residents and the safety of those using public roads and buildings if Gov. Mike Pence signs into law a bill repealing the common construction wage as expected.
The bill is on its way to Pence, who has strongly pushed for the measure and has touted the bill on social media.
Pence and other repeal supporters say the bill would save as much as 20 percent from the cost of public building projects by allowing more contractors to pay wages below union scale. Opponents dispute such savings will occur and argue the change will open the door for low-paying, out-of-state contractors.
by Valerie Gotten on Tue, 14 Apr 2015
SACRAMENTO, Calif. /California Newswire/ – Prevailing Wage policies add 17,500 jobs and $1.4 billion in output across California’s economy, according to a new study released today by Smart Cities Prevail – a leading construction industry education and research organization.
Titled, Building the Golden State – The Economic Impacts of California’s Prevailing Wage Policy, the first-of-its-kind report was co-authored by Colorado State University-Pueblo Economist Dr. Kevin Duncan and Smart Cities Prevail Researcher Alex Lantsberg. The study was conducted using IMPLAN software (the industry standard for analyzing the effects of government policy choices on the economy) to model the impact of eliminating California’s prevailing wage standards.
April 6, 2015
Frank Manzo IV, Policy Director
Illinois Economic Polict Institute (ILEPI)
Efforts to create local “right-to-work” zones would have negative impacts on workers and the economy in Illinois, according to a new report released today by the Illinois Economic Policy Institute (ILEPI) and the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.
The report, The Impact of Local “Right-to-Work” Zones: Predicting Outcomes for Workers, the Economy and Tax Revenues in Illinois (PDF), investigates the economic and policy impacts of adopting local “right-to-work” zones in Illinois, testing claims made by proponents of the ordinances. The report finds that worker incomes are lower in economies with right-to-work laws and that employment effects are inconclusive. For instance, average worker wages are $2.90 per hour (13 percent) higher in Illinois than in right-to-work Indiana. At the same time, the unemployment rate in eastern Illinois counties is lower than in right-to-work counties across the Indiana border in December 2014.
April 04, 2015
(SEATTLE, WA.) — The City of Seattle and the U.S. Department of Labor’s Wage and Hour Division have agreed formally to share information and coordinate enforcement efforts to combat wage theft, a major problem across the U.S. and an even bigger problem in low-wage industries.
“A Memorandum of Understanding – the first signed by the Wage and Hour Division with a city in its western region – aims to boost the Seattle Police Department’s ability to investigate alleged wage theft cases and, when warranted, forward them for review by the City Attorney’s Office,” according to a Seattle Police statement.
In 2011 the City Council made wage theft – the intentional failure to pay or underpay an employee for work – a gross misdemeanor, punishable by up to 364 days in jail and a $5,000 fine.
Wage theft is the illegal withholding of wages or the denial of benefits that are rightfully owed to an employee. Wage theft, particularly from low wage legal or illegal immigrant workers, is common in the United States, according to the FBI’s Uniform Crime Reports.
BY STEVEN GIRARDI
Tribune staff
Published: April 2, 2015
ST. PETERSBURG – An ordinance to help protect workers from being paid unfairly or, in some cases, not paid at all, passed its first review by the City Council on Thursday. The council voted unanimously to establish a city office to help workers file and pursue wage theft complaints against employers. The ordinance will require a second approval later this month.
City Councilwoman Darden Rice, who proposed the ordinance, said the city needs to protect workers, as well as employers who are harmed by competitors who pay illegally low wages.
The wage theft problem gained attention when Pinellas landed forth on list of counties with the highest incidents of wage theft in the state, behind Miami-Dade, Hillsborough and Broward, in a study by Florida International University in Miami.
4/1/2015 by Portia Moore, Paula Simon
Two significant wage-related ordinances take effect on April 1, 2015, impacting all employers with employees who work in Seattle, whether regularly or occasionally.
The Seattle Minimum Wage Ordinance: Minimum wages rise for all employees who perform at least two hours of work in Seattle in a two-week pay period. The Ordinance sets forth additional record-keeping and notice posting requirements, along with provisions on joint employers and integrated enterprises. The city’s new Office of Labor Standards (OLS), which is part of the Seattle Office for Civil Rights (SOCR), has just released the final administrative rules that guide how the Seattle Minimum Wage Ordinance is interpreted and enforced, available here, along with an extensive FAQ sheet, available here.
The Seattle Wage Theft Ordinance: Although the City of Seattle originally passed a Wage Theft Ordinance in 2011 (amending SMC 12A.08.060), the sole complaint mechanism provided by the 2011 law involved the filing of a criminal complaint to law enforcement. Starting Wednesday, April 1, 2015, a new administrative process will allow employees to file wage theft charges with the OLS.