Prevailing Wage Study Press Conference Video Released

New research from the nonprofit, nonpartisan Wisconsin Taxpayers Alliance (WISTAX) shows that Wisconsin’s “prevailing wage” penalizes the poorest rural communities, stifles competition, and costs taxpayers 45% more. The WISTAX research, which was commissioned by ABC-WI, shows that when compared to the federal government’s method, Wisconsin’s methodology is flawed, resulting in extra building costs in 2014 of as much as $299.5 million. Other findings from the study:

• Wisconsin only receives 10% of survey responses back from those Wisconsin businesses who help determine the prevailing wage (Federal percentage is 76%).
• Of those responses, 87% are covered by collective bargaining even though only 25% of the construction industry statewide is unionized.
• The current reporting system often results in statewide or regional figures to set a wage rate that doesn’t reflect a county’s labor market.
• Wisconsin prevailing wage overall compensation packages are 44% higher than Bureau of Labor Statistics package rates.

Watch the press conference