House Committee on Education and Labor
U.S. House of Representatives
Republicans
Rep. Howard P. “Buck” McKeon
Ranking Member
Fiscally responsible reforms for students, workers and retirees.
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More Big Labor Paybacks
This morning, the Wall Street Journal editorial page takes on congressional Democrats for their thinly-veiled efforts to bolster their special interest union allies by slipping Depression-era Davis-Bacon wage mandates into one piece of legislation after another. According to the Journal:
What do the farm bill, the cap-and-trade global warming bill, the clean water bill, the housing bailout bill, and the school construction bill all have in common? Not much, except that in each one and countless others the Democratic majority in Congress has inserted "prevailing-wage" requirements that amount to a super-minimum wage.
We're speaking of Davis-Bacon, the 1931 law that originally applied to road building and other federal construction projects and set a floor on wages in part to price black and Mexican workers out of the work. Today, its main impact is to require de facto union wages. Many reputable studies have estimated that Davis-Bacon inflates federal construction costs by anywhere from 5% to 39%. A Heritage Foundation analysis of wage data reports that in many cities the mandated Davis-Bacon wage is twice as high as the market wage. In Nassau-Suffolk in New York, for example, Davis-Bacon requires a minimum wage for brickmasons of $49.67 an hour, though the more common area wage for that work is $25.50.
It's an interesting piece, well worth the read.
| Posted by Press Staff (06-10-2008, 10:30 AM) filed under Labor |
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