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HOME — FACTS — TABLES — VIDEOS — INFOGRAPHICS — AGENCIES — RESEARCH <br />Prevailing wage requirements provide a livable, minimum pay rate for construction workers that is consistent <br />with local market standards. By stabilizing the wage floor, the requirement closes pay gaps that <br />disproportionately impact communities of color, decreases the likelihood of working people living in poverty, <br />increases rates of health coverage and increases the probability of a non -white individual pursuing a career in <br />construction. <br />Prevailing wage also increases participation in skilled trade apprenticeship programs. These programs not only <br />expand a worker's lifetime earnings by as much as $240,000, but enable construction workers to acquire skills <br />that improve safety, productivity and efficiency on the jobsite. These skills are essential if we hope to boost <br />housing supply in sufficient quantities to close the affordability gap. <br />To formulate sound policy consistent with California's values, we need to have an honest conversation about <br />how we arrived at our present crisis. By depressing wages and productivity and turning a blind eye to the <br />growing wage theft epidemic, industry profits have exploded. But so has the income gap within the industry, <br />as well as the number of Californians priced out of the housing market. <br />Something isn't working. <br />In housing reform, we are being asked to de -regulate one of our state's most lucrative industries. In return, <br />aren't taxpayers entitled to ask that this industry do right by its workers? <br />Hilda L. Solis is a former member of Congress and was Secretary of Labor from 2009-2013. She now serves on <br />the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors. She wrote this for The Mercury News. <br />21 <br />