Mt. Vernon Register-News

Opinion

August 12, 2009

A Reader's View: Citizens will be shocked to see what city, schools pay for labor

Editor:

A few weeks back the local papers published that Mt. Vernon had passed the Illinois Prevailing Wage Act for projects in Mt. Vernon which was factually correct notwithstanding one item. The papers listed the amounts of money each craft receives ‘on the check.’

What you forgot to report was what the full package of wages and fringes cost every city in Illinois by paying ‘prevailing wages.’ You reported that laborers were paid $22.55, operators $28.50 and electricians $34.46, etc.

When you add the fringes paid to the union for health and welfare, pension, training, vacation pay, federal and state payroll taxes, workers’ compensation and 15 percent profit the costs are then: Laborers $52.46; operators $70.09; and electricians $71.11 per hour.

The fringes sent in to the unions are closely approaching what the craftsmen are paid on the check (an operator pays $20 per man-hour to the union for the various funds).

Most people would/will be shocked to see what the city and our schools are paying for labor.

Of course you would think that ‘prevailing wages’ would be the average wage in the area when in fact it is the average union wage since only government jobs are used for the wage average computation and it is stipulated by law that all government projects are prevailing wages, i.e. union wages.

Now the governor has signed SB 223 into law which says not only state, city, county and public work projects are prevailing wages but now any private project that is in the Enterprise Zone or TIF district (excluding residential and multi-family housing) are also going to require prevailing wages. This effectively doubles the cost of non-union wages on private projects. So if you are going to build an office for yourself on Broadway or an industrial building in the Rolland Lewis Park you are required to pay the foregoing rates for construction.

And we wonder why the state can’t pay their bills and all the new plants are being located in the southern states...

Yet our legislative representatives are all scratching their heads trying to figure out where to cut costs?

I think we are stomping ants in the basement while elephants are running loose on the first floor.

Dan Black

Mt. Vernon

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