The Commonwealth Foundation joined a coalition of organizations - including business groups, boroughs, and school boards - calling for reforming Pennsylvania's prevailing wage law. Specific proposals include:
- Sun setting or eliminating prevailing wages from school construction, road and highway work, and all other taxpayer-funded programs;
- Giving each municipality the option to pay the prevailing wage or the occupational market based wage for their area;
- Updating the prevailing wage threshold (which has not been raised since 1961) to an amount equivalent to today's dollars; and
- Establishing the use of the occupational wage rate gathered by the Pennsylvania Department of Labor and Industry as the clear and uniform statutory definition of the prevailing pay rate.
Pennsylvania's prevailing wage law cost state and local governments an estimated $9 billion in additional construction costs each year, driving up property taxes. For the full letter, see below:
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