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  • Prevailing Wage: First Step to Victory ~by Jennifer Stefano

Prevailing Wage: First Step to Victory ~by Jennifer Stefano

Today, the Pennsylvania House Labor and Industry Committee, led by Chairman Ron Miller, helped to advance a win for taxpayers by voting six prevailing wage reform bills out of committee. These bills will help curtail the practice of setting a "prevailing wage" on public works projects which drives up the cost of those projects for taxpayers. The bills will now go before the full house for consideration.

At the hearing, the bills were voted out of Committee by strict party line votes, with Republicans voting in favor of all measures and Democrats voting against. Democrats on the Committee, lead by Minority Chair William Keller, attempted to bog down proceedings by proposing a host of last minute amendments and postponement of the vote. Undaunted by the stall tactics, Chairman Miller, allowed the votes and pushed clean bills (bills free of last minute amendments) through to the House.

Please join us in thanking the State Represenatives on Labor and Industry who voted to protect the taxpayers of Pennsylvania:

YES VOTES:

As a result of Monday's committee vote, the following six bills will go before the House:

  • HB 1329: This bill will raise the minimum amount for prevailing wage to kick in from $25,000 to $185,000. The $25,000 minimum has not been changed sinced 1963 (the year President Kennedy was asassinated) and makes doing even simple repairs costly for local governments. The bill will also increase the prevailing wage minimum each year based on inflation.
  • HB 1271: This bill will would allow municipalities to exempt from prevailing wage, road paving projects that meet certain requirements.
 This bill will help partially right a wrong enacted in 2006 when the state amended the Prevailing Wage law to include any paving project that was, until then, exempt. In 2008, the PA Supreme Court upheld the decision in The Borough of Youngswood vs The Pennsylvania Prevailing Wage Appeals Board. Since that decision, "paving" has been expanded even further under the PA Department of Labor and Industry to include: road and shoulder repair/widening and mantience, sidewalks, guardrails and pipes.
  • HB 1685: This bill will help update the current Prevailing Wage laws to define jobs that are and are not subject to prevailing wage and will adopt classifications using federal guidelines.
  • HB 1541: Will exempt any public works job from the Prevailing Wage laws when at least 50% of the funds come from private entities.
  • HB 709: This bill will allow school districts to opt out of the Prevailing Wage Act.
  • HB 1191: This bill will allow local governments to opt out of the Prevailing Wage Act.

Americans for Prosperity, Pennsylvania is very encouraged to see real reforms, such as these, underway. These measures will begin the process of unburdening local governments, school districts and most importantly, the taxpayers of this Commonwealth.