In a victory for merit shop construction and ABC’s Rocky Mountain chapter, the Colorado House Business Affairs and Labor Committee Feb. 17 voted 6-5 to indefinitely suspend HB 09-1208, a bill that would have required contractors and subcontractors building roads, bridges, buildings and other public works projects to pay artificially inflated wages.
HB 09-1208 would have required contractors to pay prevailing wages on all state-funded construction projects worth more than $100,000, increasing the cost of construction and discouraging small or minority contractors from competing for these projects.
In March, ABC’s New Mexico chapter lost the battle against another prevailing wage bill when SB 33 passed the House of Representatives by a vote of 34-31 and the Senate by a vote of 24-16. Under SB 33, all state-funded construction projects worth more than $60,000 will be subject to prevailing wage rates identical to collective bargaining union rates, making New Mexico one of eight states that determine prevailing wages using union wages.
Since wages count for an average of 50 percent of the cost of a construction project, SB 33 will have a significant impact on a state already facing a budget short fall of more than $500 million.
ABC is continuing to fight prevailing wage requirements. For more information click
here.