The Mackinac Center for Public Policy recently published a study evaluating the effects of state prevailing wage policy on road construction and maintenance costs. Prevailing wage requirements undermine nonunion contractors’ competitiveness for public works contracts by standardizing the payment of union wage rates via methodologically defective surveys.

On March 24, Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer signed into law S.B. 34 and H.B. 4007, which respectively repeal the state’s right-to-work protections and reinstate prevailing wage requirements for public construction projects. The actions reward labor unions’ substantial financial and political contributions to Michigan Democrats’ unified state governmental control and garnered significant opposition from ABC of Michigan, the wider business community and Republican lawmakers.

On July 1, the U.S. House of Representatives passed H.R. 3684, the INVEST in America Act, by a vote of 221-201. H.R. 3684. This $715 billion surface transportation reauthorization and water infrastructure bill represents House Democrats’ attempt to reauthorize the expiring 2015 FAST Act and implement partisan, anti-merit shop priorities in infrastructure spending.

On June 28, eight members of the U.S. House Committee on Financial Services sent an ABC-supported letter to Secretary of the Treasury Janet Yellen expressing concerns about the department’s guid

On April 14, the House Committee on Transportation and Infrastructure hosted a “Members’ Day Hearing” to seek recommendations on the policy priorities of members of the U.S. House of Representatives as they begin to consider legislation to reauthorize surface transportation legislation, which expires at the end of September.

On March 31, the Biden administration released a more than $2 trillion infrastructure outline titled the “American Jobs Plan.” While the plan calls for federal spending over the next eight years to improve the nation’s infrastructure, including for transportation, broadband, energy, and drinking water, it also includes funding for schools and child-car

According to findings of an ABC membership survey published on March 3, 2021, ABC members overwhelmingly support repeal or reform of the federal Davis-Bacon Act and related state and local prevailing wage laws that increase costs and reduce competition from qualified contractors on taxpayer-funded construction projects.

In a victory for ABC, New Hampshire Gov. Chris Sununu vetoed legislation that would have imposed prevailing wage requirements on state projects for the first time since the law was repealed in 1985 on July 19. 

As the New York state legislature adjourned in Albany, ABC’s Empire State Chapter members celebrated the successful blockage of an extremely onerous effort to expand prevailing wage in the state well beyond its typical applicability on public works projects.

A new report released by the Empire Center for Public Policy on April 24 found that prevailing wage requirements inflate the cost of publicly funded construction projects in New York by between 13 percent and 25 percent. The varying percentages are based on the area or region of the state. Taxpayers can expect to pay billions in extra costs, given the tens of billions the state plans to spend on public projects over the next five to 10 years.