Lawmakers set sights on repealing, reforming prevailing wage law

Missouri lawmakers have set their sights on repealing or reforming the state�s prevailing wage law this year.

State Rep. Holly Rehder once again is leading the effort in the House to repeal the measure, which she contends drives up the cost of building schools and other public-works buildings throughout the state.

Missouri Gov. Eric Greitens last year called for repeal of the law.

As chairwoman of the economic development committee, Rehder is in position to shepherd such a bill through the House.

House lawmakers have filed nearly a dozen bills dealing with repeal or reform of the prevailing wage law.

Wayne Wallingford

The law requires contractors to pay a state-determined minimum wage for each construction trade on public-works projects.

The Missouri Department of Labor calculates minimum-wage rates on the basis of an annual survey of wage rates. The amount varies by county and occupation.

Democrats and labor union leaders have argued repealing the law would decrease worker wages and lead to less tax revenue. Repeal also would result in nonunion, out-of-state workers taking jobs away from local construction workers, they said.

Rehder said she plans to bring her repeal bill out of committee along with several reform measures in case the Senate objects to full repeal.

The House last year voted to repeal the law, but the measure languished in the Senate.

�We don�t know what will happen in the Senate,� she said.

�I am going to get some of the reforms out that make sense,� the Scott County Republican lawmaker said.

The School Construction Act is one reform measure favored by Rehder. It would exempt construction and maintenance work in all but a handful of school districts from prevailing wage requirements if approved by a majority of that district�s school board members.

The exemptions would not apply to school districts in St. Charles, Jackson, St. Louis or Jefferson counties.

Rehder said she also favors measures that would allow governmental bodies to opt out of the prevailing wage requirement.

Some reform measure would only allow public bodies to opt out of the wage requirements for construction projects totaling $750,000 or less. But Rehder said that threshold needs to be higher.

Rehder said she favors full repeal because �there is just no reason to have a 30-percent increase in labor costs.�

But Rick McGuire, business manager for Laborers Union Local 1140 in Cape Girardeau, disputed Rehder�s claim.

�That would be hard to fathom. I don�t really think that is true,� he said.

Rehder said school districts, cities and counties in Southeast Missouri are paying St. Louis-area wages where there is a higher cost of living.

McGuire said he has heard that argument, but it is not true.

�Everybody for the most part makes less down here in Cape County than they do in St. Louis,� he said.

Online records from the Missouri Department of Labor show a union carpenter in St. Louis County makes more than $37 an hour compared to less than $26 an hour in Cape Girardeau.

A general laborer in St. Louis County is paid more than $31 an hour compared to just over $23 an hour in Cape Girardeau County, according to the Labor Department.

State Sen. Wayne Wallingford, R-Cape Girardeau, opposed full repeal last year and will do so again this session.

�I am not for repeal of prevailing wage, but I am for reform of it,� he said.

Wallingford has said the problem with the current law centers on the Labor Department�s annual survey of wage rates.

The state senator has said the wage rates are flawed because many independent contractors don�t fill out the form while �labor unions are good at filling out the forms.� The result is wage rates don�t accurately reflect the local labor market, he said.

But eliminating the prevailing wage law entirely would open the door to low-wage workers who are less skilled, Wallingford said in the 2017 session.

Even if the repeal effort is successful, federal law stipulates projects that are funded at least in part by federal money must meet prevailing-wage requirements, Rehder said.

mbliss@semissourian.com

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