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Studies Dispute Ohio Prevailing Wage Claim

August 5, 2002

A report touted by Ohio legislators to justify nonunion wages for school construction projects in that state is fundamentally flawed, according to recent studies.

A state government report misleadingly claimed that by paying workers less than the prevailing wage, taxpayers might potentially have saved $488 million on the states school building program over the last five years.

Unions knew that claim did not hold water, and recent research proves them right.

The Ohio General Assembly repealed state prevailing-wage requirements on school building projects in 1997. The legislature also required the Legislative Service Commission to study the impact of the measure within five years.

Ohio State University professor Herbert F. Weisberg said the commission report actually shows no significant savings since legislators repealed prevailing wage requirements for school construction projects, The Columbus Dispatch reported July 21. Weisberg reviewed the report for the Ohio Building and Construction Trades Council.

The Legislative Service Commission report was "flawed and meaningless" according to an earlier analysis conducted by Columbus-based Underwood & Associates for the National Electrical Contractors Association (NECA).

"By relying primarily on nonunion contractors as the sole source of data for its research [the commission] has produced a biased and misleading report about purported savings," the Dispatch quoted Jim Underwood as stating.

The commission study was biased on numerous counts, Underwood said. The study used a wage survey asking school officials and nonunion contractors what they would have bid on a project had it paid prevailing wage. Additionally, the commission relied on estimated construction costs at the beginning of projects, rather than actual costs Weisberg said.

Anti-union forces still want to deny Ohio workers fair prevailing wages.

"Majority Republicans in the House and Senate who pushed the exemption" argued that it would save costs and stretch dollars, the Dispatch wrote.

The Ohio "debate over the issue is expected to heat up again as the multibillion-dollar construction and renovation effort moves into the states urban centers, where unions typically enjoy more political support," the Dispatch reported. "The Cleveland Board of Education has passed a resolution pledging to pay union-scale wages on projects totaling $1.5 billion."

In actuality, prevailing wage requirements are more cost-effective because union workers are more highly skilled and productive. Recent studies conducted by several universities conclude that school construction projects in states with prevailing wage standards have lower overall costs than states that dont and that prevailing wage requirements do not inflate construction costs.

"Higher wages and benefits attract higher-skilled, more stable workers who produce a better quality product in the end," said IBEW International President Edwin D. Hill.

Support H.R.1076 - America's Better Classroom Act of 2001.