Letter to the Editor: Palatine Township Reluctantly Passes Prevailing Wage Act

Below is a letter to the editor submitted by the Palatine Township Board:

Last month the Palatine Township Board approved the Prevailing Wage Act for Palatine Township not because it was the right thing to do, but because the State of Illinois forces all local governments to abide by the law which they enacted. Now we are calling on our state representatives to repeal this law.

Why? Because the Act forces governments to pay artificially high hourly rates for any construction projects they undertake. The Department of Labor for the State of Illinois has determined that we must pay the prevailing rate of wages as set for all of Cook County. These wages, according to the Chicago Tribune, are around 40% higher than the average wage in our area. The Palatine Township Board has made it a priority to control spending and keep down taxes. This Act forces us to spend 40% more for labor on any construction project that we conduct in the Township.

Illinois passed the Prevailing Wage Act in 1941 to ensure that labor disputes did not delay public works projects and to protect worker’s jobs from itinerant workers. Today it is unfairly eliminating competition by forcing companies to increase their wages for skilled and unskilled workers with no regard to the exact type of work or skill of the employee. The law also interferes with efficient labor utilization because it forces the adherence to union work rules, imposes additional compliance costs including litigation and creates addition administrative costs for the contractor in monitoring prevailing wages. These factors all combine to increase construction costs which lead to either reduced services to the community or higher taxes.

Palatine Township is not alone in seeking the repeal of the Prevailing Wage Act. Officials from the Village of Palatine, Mount Prospect and Woodstock are also looking to the state to change the law. Thirty Two states currently have some form of prevailing wage law. Of the 18 states without the law, 10 of those states once had the law and have now repealed the law through legislative action or court decision. In most of the states that have the law, the law only affects projects of a certain size ranging from $1,000.00 in California and Rhode Island to $500,000.00 in Maryland. Illinois is one of only nine states that requires that prevailing wage be applied to all projects.

Please join us in contacting your state representatives and asking them to repeal or change the Prevailing Wage Law. We don’t need laws that increase spending and will raise taxes.

Palatine Township Board