State sets 2007 prevailing wage rates

Many of them are unchanged from the rates put into effect in June 2006.

The 2007 prevailing wage rates were announced by the Missouri Division of Labor Standards, a division of the Missouri Department of Labor and Industrial Relations, on March 10, but the state allows a 30-day objection period for affected groups to submit their objections to the calculated rates.

This year’s objection period ends April 10.

If the 2007 rates are approved, they will take effect by June 29.

DOLIR spokeswoman Tammy Cavender said no objections had been received by press time. The state received about 80 objections each year for the last two years, though she noted that one written complaint can contain multiple objections.

Determining prevailing wage

Prevailing wage rates are set each year and are used to determine what construction industry workers will be paid when they work on publicly funded projects in Missouri.

The rates, according to Cavender, are set using information provided voluntarily by contractors and construction-related unions across the state on both private and public projects. Specifically, firms send in the hourly wages for their workers on projects completed during the previous year.

Prevailing wages are the most common wages paid for a particular area, so the more companies and unions to send data in, the more wages there are to consider.

“The more information we can receive, the more accurate our prevailing wage rate will be when we set it – it will be a truer reflection of what’s going on,” Cavender said.

Different rates are set for each job title and for each county in the state, based on information sent to the state for each county.

Some of the rates can be drastically different depending on the area: A carpenter in Greene County has a prevailing hourly wage of $20.93, while the same carpenter working in Kansas City’s Jackson County gets $31.30 per hour.

Prevailing wages provide a level of certainty for government agencies about how much a project’s labor will cost.

“We know that the prevailing wage is generally what the labor is going to cost, so it does help with planning,” said Travis Koestner, bid and contract services engineer for the Missouri Department of Transportation. “It’s a good barometer.”

Koestner added that between 25 percent and 35 percent of a project’s total costs can be attributed to labor.

Pros and cons

The prevailing wage is not without controversy, however.

Opponents of the system say that the prevailing wage is not a true indicator of what workers in an area are being paid, instead closely mirroring the union wage scale because unions are diligent about submitting wage information, and union workers receive the same collectively bargained wage for their particular jobs.

Jim Carson, vice president of Carson-Mitchell Inc. and president of the Springfield Contractors Association, said that the unions, because of their diligence in filling out the surveys, have a disproportionate amount of influence over the wages. He points to statistics from the Bureau of Labor Statistics showing that 12 percent of all workers nationally are union members, and only 11.5 percent in Missouri.

“You’d need to have a groundswell of businesses wanting to do more paperwork and reporting, which they don’t want to do,” Carson said. “They’re busy out there doing what they do, and they have all the paperwork they need, so they don’t report.”

Carson said that, despite the common misconception, nonunion wages don’t closely follow their union counterparts.

“There are the horror stories out there of small school districts that have tried to build new facilities and have based their cost estimates on what they knew of the local community’s pay scale,” Carson said. “When they get their bids in, based on prevailing wage, their budget’s shot.”

John Creller, business manager for Bricklayers & Allied Craftworkers Local 15, said union wages are indeed higher than nonunion wages – and that’s precisely the reason that prevailing wages should follow those paid to union workers.

“The prevailing wage does follow the union wage, and it’s because we take the time to fill out the paperwork and keep the wages up,” Creller said. “This mentality that $8 or $10 an hour is a good living wage is a big lie. When a new house – a basic starter house – is $80,000 to $100,000, there’s no reason for people to be making $8 to $10 an hour in today’s economy.”

Proposed Prevailing Wages

Several job titles in Greene County did not see their wage rates change in the proposed prevailing wages for 2007. Among them:

• Carpenters ($20.93 an hour)

• Electricians (inside wireman, $22.70)

• Pipe Fitters ($24.52)

• Plumbers ($24.52)

• Laborers ($15.75–$16.98)

• Roofers ($19.51)

Some jobs, though, could see wage changes if the proposed wage schedule is approved, including:

• Bricklayers – stone mason (up 75 cents to $25.75 an hour)

• Group I and Group III operating engineers (up $1.25 and 60 cents, respectively, an hour)

• Glaziers (up $1.50 to $22.40 per hour);

• Plasterers (up 44 cents to $19.01 an hour)

• Iron Workers (up 50 cents to $23.10 an hour)

Regional Differences

Prevailing wage rates are different depending on the county and the job title. The rates currently in effect were officially approved in June 2006, and for these jobs, will stay the same under the proposed 2007 rates.

Job Title Greene County St. Louis County Jackson County (Kansas City)

Carpenter $20.93 $30.52 $31.30

Electrician (inside wireman) $22.70 $32.10 $30.73

Pipe Fitter $24.52 $31.00 $33.94

Plumber $24.52 $31.00 $31.48

Roofer $19.51 $26.25 $28.50