Pittsburgh Ponders Prevailing Wage

As the story below tells it, Pittsburgh is considering a prevailing wage bill that would require employers to pay employees working in buildings that received city aid the "prevailing wage" of other workers in the locality.   Prevailing wages are almost always calculated using the wages that unionized workers are paid.  Allegheny County is considering a similar bill.

Critics of prevailing wage rules claim that it puts employers and contractors at a competitive disadvantage.  That is true, to the extent that competitive advantage is measured exclusively by labor costs.  But prevailing wage legislation ensures that employers must compete on something other than wages, since everyone must pay the same wages on a project, or in the same locality.  It helps insure against the race to the bottom that sets worker against worker -- who will do the job for the least.  


The article reports on a rally held on Martin Luther King day in which religious leaders expressed their support of the bill.  It's nice to see these leaders paying respect to Martin Luther King in a way of that truly honors his legacy.  Most people forget that he was in Memphis to lend his support to the sanitation workers strike.

http://www.pittsburghlive.com/x/pittsburghtrib/news/s/s_662873.html?_s
http://www.pittsburghlive.com/x/pittsburghtrib/news/s/s_662873.html?_s