Prevailing Wage Reform Hearings Continue — The Pennsylvania House Labor and Industry Committee met in Johnstown last week to conduct the third in a series of hearings to discuss updates to Pennsylvania’s outdated Prevailing Wage Act, reports State Rep. Jim Cox (R-129)
The law with its origins in racism cost Pennsylvania taxpayers $1 billion per year according to Commonwealth Foundation. Get rid of this and we can stop talking about 20 cents per gallon gas tax hikes.
Testifiers at last week’s hearings ncluded township managers, supervisors, a county commissioner, a city manager and union officials. Pennsylvania’s Prevailing Wage Act requires municipalities and school districts to pay the “prevailing minimum wage” to those individuals working on public construction projects without specifying how the wage is determined, often resulting in inflated public project costs for municipalities. The act has not been updated since 1963.
An additional hearing on the issue is scheduled for Lycoming County on Sept. 26.