“What you really lose, when you get rid of the prevailing wage, is a skilled, productive worker,” he said. “Our roads, bridges, and buildings should be built by the safest, best trained, qualified people, and those people need to be paid fairly for their skills. You’re not going to attract businesses to the state with substandard infrastructure.”
Dane County executive Joe Parisi, who is currently planning for a $24 million construction project this summer, told ThinkProgress he shares these concerns.
“All projects are important, but public projects in particular need quality craftsmanship, high safety standards, and assurance they’ll get done on time,” he said. “We don’t want to cut corners. We don’t want people to have to come back and redo a project. We want it done right. In order to do that, we need contractors that hire people at a reasonable wage. This is hard work, dangerous work, and they deserve a living wage. We’re not talking about an outrageous wage. It’s based on the average wages in the area.”