Politics & Government

Milne: Exempt Groups From Minimum Wage Laws

Historic organizations and land conservancies would be exempt from minimum wage laws, if a bill introduced by state Rep. Duane Milne.

Editor's note: The information below is a press release issued by state Rep. Duane Milne's office.

Rep. Duane Milne announced today that a bill he introduced to exempt any work on property owned or held by historic organizations or land conservancies from the Prevailing Wage Act passed the House Labor and Industry Committee.

The Prevailing Wage Act establishes "prevailing" minimum wage rates that must be paid on public construction projects.  Often, the rates that must be paid under the act are union wage rates.  Such are not always reflective of the wage rates that would be paid on construction projects in a given municipality if the free enterprise system were permitted to operate.  Studies in this and other states have consistently indicated that the requirements of state prevailing wage laws artificially inflate the costs of public construction projects in the range of 10%-30%.

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“I do not believe that historic preservation projects, or projects done by land conservancies, should be subject to the expense and bureaucracy of this law,” states Milne.  “Budgets of such groups generally are small.  We need to ensure that such groups, merely trying to perform good works for their communities, can stretch their limited budgets as far as possible.  This legislation, therefore, is in the best interests of promoting the public good.”

For more information contact Rep. Milne’s Malvern Office at (610) 251-1070, or e-mail hhammers@pahousegop.com

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