Ensuring that construction workers earn a wage that prevails in the local area is a way to promote local hiring over bringing in low-wage out-of-staters. Although the Building Trades got the prevailing wage inserted into the California constitution, localities look for ways around it on an on-going basis. See studies, videos, and news about the fight to keep the prevailing wage.
RIGHT THE FIRST TIME – The prevailing wage has been in California law for more than 80 years. This short video, produced by the State Building and Construction Trades Council of California, shows how paying prevailing wages supports our cities, counties, and the economy of our state by providing a trained and ready workforce that gets the job done right the first time. The video features two key stories: (1) How paying prevailing wage enabled CalTrans and Granite Construction to rebuild and reopen a fallen bridge on the I-10 in record time; and (2) How two library projects, in Gilroy and Palo Alto, where one paid the prevailing wage and the other didn’t; see the vastly different results.