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Sponsors
3 Multi-sponsors
History
- Referred to labor
Full text
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Sponsor's memo
BILL NUMBER:A11043
Title of bill
An act to amend the labor law, in relation to prevailing wages
Purpose
Changes the definition of prevailing wage to include a broader, more inclusive, sample of employers.
Summary of provisions
Section 1 amends §220 of the Labor Law to change the methodology for determining the local prevailing wage for public works projects to require that data from employers not subject to collective bargaining agreements be used when establishing this wage.
Section 2 amends §230 of the Labor Law to further define the locality for purposes of prevailing wage to mean the county where such a public works projects will be conducted, or in the case of a project spanning two counties, the average of those two. Defines a locality in a city of one million or more in population to be all of the counties comprising that city.
Section 3 amends §234 of the Labor Law to change the methodology for determining local prevailing wage for service contracts to require that data from employers not subject to collective bargaining agreements be used when establishing this wage.
Section 4 contains the effective date.
Justification
New York State law requires that contractors with the State provide a fair and competitive prevailing wage to workers who will be or are associated with those projects. As a means to ensure that workers are not exploited in order for bidders to achieve an award for the lowest bid this is a laudable goal and reasonable public policy. Unfortunately, the law as now written in most cases uses only union negotiated wages as a benchmark for establishing a prevailing wage rate. This is unfair to employers whose workers have chosen not to be repres- ented by a union, and additionally drives up costs to the taxpayer by inflating labor costs and freezing out bidders that might be otherwise able to bid successfully on state contracts. In essence, the state puts it figurative "thumb on the scale" in favor of one class of business at the expense of another, all while driving up costs to our already over- burdened taxpayers and increasing local real property taxes. This bill repairs this inequity while saving the taxpayers money - a dire necessi- ty in this economic climate.
Prior legislative history
New bill
Fiscal implications
Significant cost savings to state and local govern- ment will result.
Effective date
The January first succeeding the date on which it becomes law.
Summaries, headlines and scores are AI-generated from the official bill text. How we score bills. Source: NYS Open Legislation.