Supreme Court Helps Taxpayers, Workers
Thursday, June 18th, 2009 By Marc Kilmer
The Ohio State Supreme Court yesterday helped save taxpayers a little money when it limited the scope of the state’s prevailing wage law. The prevailing wage law mandates higher-than-market wages for work on most state construction projects, which leads to the government (i.e., you, the taxpayer) paying 5% to 15% more for these projects. It can also lead to reduced competition for government construction contracts, which hits nonunion contractors especially hard. For a detailed look at the pernicious effects of prevailing wage laws, it’s hard to find a better source than the Mackinac Center’s booklet on Michigan’s law. Most of what author Paul Kersey says about our neighbor to the north also applies to Ohio.
The Buckeye Institute has done some work on Ohio’s prevailing wage law in Ohio’s Prevailing Wage Law a Costly Burden, Prevailing Wage Law Costs Ohio Millions, Prevailing Wage Exemption Provides Schools with Lower Costs, Higher Quality Construction, and Hamilton County Jail Needs to Escape Prevailing Wage.
