By KTTN News | 08/29/2019
According to Jeff Phillips, Communications and Outreach Manager of the Laborers International Union of North America in St. Joseph, construction workers in many rural Missouri counties are working for less this Labor Day holiday.
Missouri’s new prevailing wage law has cut wages for construction workers in many counties, sometimes by more than half. The new formula that calculates the wage for public works projects was approved by Missouri lawmakers last year and went into effect on July 1st.
One of the counties hardest hit was Grundy County in northwest Missouri. The new prevailing wage for construction laborers on building projects is $19.81 an hour, as compared to $39.56 an hour in 2018. Heavy highway laborers this year will earn $19.81 an hour, down from $40.63. The higher wage often included benefits like health insurance and pensions. The new wage applies to all construction crafts in Grundy County.
“This is not a union problem. It hits everyone who works construction, union, and non-union, across all trades,” said Jason Estes, Business Manager of Laborers Local 579 in St. Joseph. “These pay cuts are hitting many of our rural counties hardest, where construction wages are the best jobs available in these communities. These are the people and places who need these family-wage jobs most.”
The new law calculates the wage based on public works projects with more than 1,000 hours worked, and a project cost of more than $75,000. The wages are broken down into two categories: Building, which includes projects like schools, and state and local government facilities; and Heavy Highway, which includes any local, county, state or federal road or bridge.