Las Vegas Sun

March 28, 2024

Guest column:

Build schools without gutting fair wages

It’s no secret that we desperately need new schools in districts across the state. The Clark County School District, for example, has added 10,000 students without building a single new school. CCSD students could fill 24 new elementary schools if they were opened tomorrow. In Washoe County, more than 200 portable trailers are used for classroom space and a third of school buildings are more than 30 years old.

That’s why Senate Democrats pushed hard for a school construction bill to be one of the first issues we considered this session. But we shouldn’t be forced to make an unnecessary choice between forcing parents to take a pay cut just so we can build new schools for their kids. It was shocking in the opening week of the Legislature to see Senate Republicans hijack an important school construction bill in an attempt to give middle-class construction workers and their families a pay cut.

The Republican plan would build schools but gut the state’s law that requires contractors pay a living wage to the workers who build those schools.

Gov. Brian Sandoval’s biennial budget proposal contains a startling fact: Despite recent job growth in Nevada, more people in our state over the next two years are expected to need government assistance just to get by. At the same time, the governor’s economic development team testified before a Senate committee that Nevada needs to attract higher-wage jobs to the state. But Senate Republicans apparently believe we should add construction work to the long list of jobs that don’t pay enough to support a family.

Fair wage requirements built into existing Nevada law help ensure that public projects are built by local workers earning a decent paycheck. It’s a smart, market-based system: Wages for a project, such as building a new school, are based on the average pay for construction projects in that community. Current laws help ensure that out-of-state contractors don’t underbid our local construction businesses and flood Nevada with cheap, unskilled labor.

But these laws protect more than just a fair paycheck for middle-class construction workers. When it comes to construction, you get what you pay for, and these laws help ensure schools are built safely by skilled laborers.

In fact, there is no conclusive evidence that giving our workers a pay cut will save taxpayers a penny. Numerous studies have shown that states that have cut fair wage protections haven’t seen any savings in their public construction projects. Fair wage states tend to have a better trained and more experienced workforce, fewer on-the-job injuries, higher worker productivity, and better health and pension benefits for their construction workers.

If we keep these fair wage laws in place, the end product is better schools that will need less money for maintenance and fewer major repair projects down the road. In short, retaining fair wage rules likely will save Nevada taxpayers money over the long term. That’s why business owners and workers, Republicans and Democrats, and people from all over the state are coming together to oppose this attack on middle-class families.

Schools are an investment, and a smart one at that. In order to see a return on that investment and a brighter future for our kids, we need safe, high-quality schools built by skilled Nevadans earning a fair day’s pay.

David Parks and Kelvin Atkinson are Democratic state senators from Clark County.

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