A prevailing wage has come under attack from advocates looking for something cheaper. And it’s shameful!
BY GARY LABARBERA
MARCH 8, 2018 1:54 PM
This is New York. We don’t do “race to the bottom” here.
We don’t invite in bottom-fishers and corner-cutters to build our buildings. And we don’t scapegoat workers.
That’s because we need the best. So we build the best.
As a Commercial Observer reader, the same goes for you, too.
You don’t “race to the bottom” when it comes to staffing up your brokerage, your development company, or your investment firm.
Yet in the world of public-sector construction, prevailing wage laws have again come under attack from advocates of bottom fishing.
But prevailing wage laws are not just good for construction workers and the agencies undertaking public projects. These laws are also good for all New Yorkers.
For more than a century, New York State has maintained an important and progressive social compact: fair wages for fair work. The pay of workers engaged in public projects must align with local prevailing wage and benefit levels. Hard-working New Yorkers thus have access to good-paying jobs and proper protection from unsafe working conditions.
And with the State’s FY 2018 capital budget exceeding $14 billion, it’s critical to shake off faulty assumptions-and recognize that prevailing wage requirements also save taxpayers money.
New data now show how these rules ensure effective cost management on public projects.
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Gary LaBarbera is the president of the Building & Construction Trades Council of Greater New York.