Kentucky's prevailing wage yields union rates

By Aaron Morris

Like most legislation, Kentucky's prevailing-wage laws have the right idea at heart. Also like most legislation, the practical application of it misses its mark by a mile.

The intent of Kentucky's prevailing-wage laws is to make sure contractors on state projects do not take advantage of workers by paying below-market wages to win state contracts. While this intention is noble, its unintended consequences wreak havoc on the actual cost of constructing public buildings.

Even the Legislative Research Commission (LRC) noted in a 2001 study which states:

Prevailing wage determinations are not designed in a manner that would likely yield prevailing wages that are representative of local wages. ... The determination process used by the Kentucky Labor Cabinet is more likely to yield prevailing wages that are representative of union wages rather than wages for all construction workers in the industry.

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