by Jake Jarvis
May 21, 2019
CHARLESTON – Officials with the West Virginia State Building Trades Council and Affiliated Construction Trades say lawmakers should consider reinstating the prevailing wage law in light of a new study.
The study, published this month by a researcher from Missouri University and the Midwest Policy Institute, found that repeal of the prevailing wage law “had negative impacts for West Virginia’s construction workers, contractors and communities while failing to deliver any meaningful cost savings.”
Steve White, director of the ACT, said in a press conference Tuesday afternoon that the promised results of repealing the prevailing wage law have not been realized.
The law required that workers on state-funded construction projects be paid a so-called prevailing wage, which was calculated by state officials after determining the usual pay rate on such projects in West Virginia.
Proponents of repealing the 1933 law said it would reduce construction costs, but opponents said repealing it would allow out-of-state companies to come to West Virginia and undercut companies here by bidding far below them.
Luther Lasure, director of the Kanawha Valley Builders Association, said that’s exactly what happened.
He said there have been more out-of-state contractors winning bids for state-funded projects. And he said said those out-of-state companies don’t have as much of an incentive to do quality work, since they don’t actually live in the community.
Lasure said that, as uncomfortable as it is to admit it in a press conference full of union officials and supporters, he’s a member of the Republican Party, the party that repealed the prevailing wage. Despite this, he said he believes in listening to the data and the data shows the repeal has hurt workers.
“The taxpayers are not saving any money, but wages have been cut dramatically,” White said.
White called on legislative leaders to “correct course” and reverse the “terrible mistake” they enacted with repealing prevailing wage in 2015.
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