Prevailing wage law costs taxpayers, local contractors

Editor's note: The following originally appeared on semissourian.com as a response to a commenter's question about why the Cape Girardeau Public School Board took a position on prevailing wage legislation.

One of the primary roles of a board of directors of a local public school is oversight of the expenditure of public funds.

The Cape Girardeau Public School district has spent over $60 million in public bond funds over the last few years on capital improvements and new construction alone. Perhaps $10 million to $20 million has been overspent on construction contracts because of compliance with Missouri’s prevailing wage laws. Twenty million dollars is no small figure, and could have easily been spent on any number of additional projects.

The impact of Missouri’s prevailing wage laws on public works projects is commonly misunderstood. Here is a primary example of the impact of current prevailing wage laws: Cape Girardeau County’s current mandated prevailing wage scale indicates that an unskilled worker be paid $22.66 in regular hourly pay, plus $12.17 per hour in total fringe benefits. The same scale mandates a linoleum layer/cutter be paid $31.83 per hour, plus $16 in fringe benefits. If the school lets a bid for linoleum flooring, and a local flooring installer wants to install a bid that requires two installers (one skilled and one unskilled helper), the flooring contractor must ensure that those workers receive those stated wages and prepare their bid accordingly. They must also comply with all of the documentation the state requires, which I assure you, is no small thing. Having worked with the construction trades for several years, I can vouch that those wage and benefits rates absolutely do not reflect the local market for flooring installation labor.

Because of Missouri’s prevailing wage laws, our schools will pay 20 percent to 30 percent or more for an identical flooring installation than a commercial business or residential customer across the street from the school would have to pay, for no other reason than because we are using public tax dollars. This is an indefensible, nonsensical mandate, and one that you as an individual would not tolerate if the roles were reversed and you had to personally pay a higher rate just because you were an individual.

One of the common arguments supporting prevailing wage is that it “promotes skilled local tradesmen and discourages unskilled out-of-state workers from working on local projects.” Well, it actually has the reverse effect. It forces local skilled tradesmen and contractors to submit bids that have to compete with larger non-local contractors who in many cases can beat their prices with other economies of scale and who have the resources to keep up with all of the bureaucratic paperwork. Is this fair for our local work force? I will submit to you that it takes more local contractors out of the running for local projects than it brings in.

Our resolution makes no statement about local wages. I come from many generations of carpenters and other tradesmen, and fully support skilled workers making as much as they can. This resolution also makes no statement against unions. Union workers take pride in their level of training and expertise and have provided excellent work product for our schools every day. What this resolution does is make a statement about the unnecessary and wasteful spending of tax dollars by mandating that ALL contracts using public funds must pay workers an inflated wage rate for their projects, regardless of what local wage scales dictate.

Finally, the Annual Delegate Assembly of the Missouri School Boards Association voted in support of repeal of Missouri’s prevailing wage laws at their last assembly. Advocacy is yet another primary role of local school boards. We are charged with considering and advocating to our local officials and state legislators about issues that affect public education. That is what we’re doing. Advocating on behalf of local taxpayers, local contractors and our schools. Exactly what we were elected to do.

Tony Smee is the vice president of the Cape Girardeau Public Schools Board of Directors.