2018-05-03 / Viewpoint
There’s been plenty of buzz lately around the need for Michigan to update its infrastructure. But when the state sends workers into our communities to fill our potholes, construct our bridges or renovate our schools, we expect the job will be done well. We don’t expect it to take years for them to repave a few blocks of our neighborhood, or that the cherry picker helping assemble an overpass will become part of the community’s scenery as the project lasts indefinitely.
We expect the job will be done on time and will be high quality, and that’s all thanks to Michigan’s prevailing wage laws.
Prevailing wage has gotten a bad reputation lately, but at the end of the day, all it means is that workers are getting paid the local average for construction projects in the area, guaranteeing the workers earn an honest day’s pay for an honest day’s work. That is just common sense.
Critics claim it’s too costly to pay state construction and skilled trades workers a fair wage, and if we repeal our prevailing wage laws, the state will save money and our economy will get on the right path.
But as simple as that sounds, studies show it simply isn’t true.
A study published earlier this year analyzed the effects of repealing prevailing wage on Indiana’s economy in the three years since it’s been eliminated. Rather than enjoying prosperous economic benefits as promised, the state has since suffered with higher worker turnover and lower productivity.
Tim Sneller, State Representative
Burton