In a disappointment to the local economy, on February 2, 2010, the Huntington Beach Charter Review Commission voted to not include a prevailing wage requirement in the city charter. On January 25, 2010, the Charter Review Commission heard from local residents who rely on the prevailing wage to provide a middle class living for them and their families. The proposed city charter will go to the City Council for final approval, at which time the prevailing wage requirement can be added back in.
The potential loss of the prevailing wage for public works projects is short sighted, does not benefit the community as whole, and feeds the problem of exploited workers. Paying the prevailing wage on public works projects provides money to circulate in the community to shops, entertainment, restaurants and other businesses because the wages paid are not subsistence wages but middle class paychecks. Also, when prevailing wage is not paid, many times unskilled or minimally skilled workers are employed by the contractors, leading to cost and schedule overruns when work must be redone. One of the problems with construction work is it can be easy to hide substandard work initially, but the problem comes out later when structural problems develop. A prevailing wage is one way to get quality workers to work on the buildings the public uses every day.
Lowering the wages paid opens the door to desperate and exploitable workers, which includes the undocumented and long term unemployed people, to move into construction jobs. Many time these workers are not adequately trained in safe and proper building techniques. They are also frequently exploited by their employers - they do not receive medical treatment if injured, are fired at will, or are forced to pay kickbacks to their employers. Some of the workers are also paid in cash, which reduces the tax money going to the city for services. These workers may also not be paid health benefits, which leads them to end up in the emergency room or community clinics to receive medical treatment. And, when workers are paid in cash, they are not eligible to collect unemployment. Employers use these tactics to increase their profits.
The prevailing wage issue will come back before the Huntington Beach City Council when the revised city charter is brought back.
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