Where I Stand — Mike O’Callaghan: A law that makes sense

Sunday, July 9, 2000 | 10:56 a.m.

Mike O'Callaghan is the Las Vegas Sun executive editor.

Every few years there is an attack on the prevailing wage law in Nevada. The Silver State's law is often referred to as the "little Davis-Bacon Act." Before taking a close look at how state prevailing wage laws work, let's discuss the federal Davis-Bacon Act.

The prevailing wage law, better known at the federal level as the Davis-Bacon Act, was passed in 1931 and signed into law by President Herbert Hoover. Both Davis and Bacon were Republicans who sponsored the law to guarantee fair bidding practices for contractors. Too many contractors were underbidding jobs, paid for with federal dollars, by paying laborers substandard wages. The low salaries of workers had become the cutting edge for the cutthroat bidders. It was hurting the communities, workers, taxpayers and the projects.

So it's not a Democrat or union gimmick to up the salaries of union workers. All workers benefit from the law and so does our economy. The "little Davis-Bacon Act" requires that state and public works construction contractors pay workers the wage rates prevailing in local areas. Without this requirement, contractors can bring cheap labor into Nevada, gobble up our tax dollars set aside for public projects, and then return home, leaving behind nothing but an inferior product. Nevada's taxpaying workers, who must live in an area with a high cost of living, are left unprotected. Our taxpayers, contractors and workers are all victims without a prevailing wage law.

In 1985 and again in 1997 some of our legislators had the bright idea of doing away with, or at least weakening, the state's prevailing wage law. Again, as we look toward the 2001 legislative session we can see, smell and hear reasons being cooked up to attack the Nevada law. Before going too far, the enemies of the prevailing wage law should look east toward neighboring Utah.

A study, reported in 1995 by Peter Philips, Garth Mangum, Norm Waitzman and Anne Yeagle at the University of Utah, shows what happened after the Beehive State repealed its prevailing wage law in 1981.

Between 1979 and 1988, a total of nine states, including Utah, repealed their prevailing wage laws. The Utah economists, when viewing all of the nine states, concluded:

May I suggest that changes to the prevailing wage law of Nevada proceed slowly and not just be the first sneaky step in another attempt to destroy it.