PUBLISHED NOV 27, 2018 AT 3:38 PM
The basic reason why the prevailing wage was created was to help local contractors to compete with out-of-state contractors, paying a lower rate. The same people complaining about the prevailing wage would also be complaining about immigrant labor coming into a county for those jobs. If you visit Columbus Avenue in Palisades Park or areas of Dover, you would see immigrants getting picked up for Construction jobs! Are they properly trained? No, I have created apprenticeships following tenets of the National Bureau of Apprenticeship Training, and I know what is needed for a 4- or 5-year program!
The rates or wages for prevailing wages are developed by surveying contractors and unions to determine the wages for each classification (Source: William Winkler)! Some of the variables looked at are the wages in the largest city in a county, viewing the majority wage! If more than one-half of all the workers reported in that city are at a certain wage than that is the majority wage rate and that wage rate becomes the rate for the whole county.
If there is not a majority wage, as listed above, then a weighted wage is computed using data from the largest city in the county, and that becomes the prevailing wage. If no hours are reported in a county’s largest city then a wage is computed for the county, and that becomes the Prevailing wage, and finally, if no data is reported for the entire county, and that county’s old Prevailing Wage remains in effect. This has been the process, since 1931, and earlier in an historical context.