prevailing wage

Sep 12, 2025

State legislator pitches revival of PLAs for public projects

A freshman legislator proposed a bill that would repeal Wisconsin’s 2017 Act 3, which banned state and local governments from requiring project bidders enter into an agreement with labor unions.

May 15, 2025

Construction apprenticeships are growing with joint labor-management programs, study shows

Wisconsin construction apprenticeships grew nearly 50% in the past eight years, however that lagged neighboring states with prevailing wage laws.

May 6, 2024

Minnesota House OKs bill that expands prevailing wage requirements

A far-ranging bill related to transportation spending, housing and labor has cleared the Minnesota House floor, despite pushback from critics who say worker protection language in the bill would make it more expensive to build low-income housing, among other unintended impacts.

Dec 6, 2023

Modernized prevailing wage rule is an investment in Wisconsin’s workforce

Here in Wisconsin, we know that paying workers fair wages is essential to building a resilient and prosperous construction industry.

Oct 23, 2023

Department of Labor announces new Davis-Bacon Act rules now in effect

The federal government returned to a previous definition for prevailing wage among other changes to the Davis-Bacon Act.

Aug 24, 2023

Facing unique challenges, Wisconsin dump truck advocates seek to revive owner-operator rate

WisDOT pointed to the Legislature for relief for Wisconsin’s aggregate haulers.

Oct 7, 2021

Michigan Gov. restores prevailing wages on state projects

Gov. Gretchen Whitmer announced Thursday that Michigan will pay higher "prevailing" wages on state construction projects, three years after Republican legislators repealed a long-standing law that required better pay.

Jan 15, 2021

Study: One in 10 Wisconsin construction workers misclassified

About one in 10 Wisconsin construction workers are improperly classified as independent contractors or paid in cash, abuses that deprive the state of about $40 million worth of tax revenue every year.

Dec 22, 2020

Wisconsin 5th in ABC’s annual ‘merit shop’ ranking of states

Wisconsin has come in 5th in the Associated Builders and Contractors’ annual ranking of state’s reliance on “merit shop” principles in their regulation and governance of the construction industry.

Aug 5, 2019

LOBBY TALLY: Industry spends less trying to influence lawmakers during latest budget session

Even as lawmakers inked a wide-ranging transportation plan and briefly considered prevailing wages and other divisive policies earlier this year, they found themselves being lobbied far less than in previous years by construction-industry groups.

Jul 26, 2019

Prevailing wage proponents not always forthright

It’s a common strategy these days for partisan activists to attempt to discredit supporters of policies they don’t like without actually addressing the merits of the policies in question.

May 2, 2019

GOP taking prevailing-wage reinstatement, lead-pipe money out of budget proposal

Republicans plan to kill some of Democratic Gov. Tony Evers’ biggest proposals in the first vote taken this year by the state’s budget-writing committee, including plans to set aside $40 million to replace lead pipes, repeal the state’s right-to-work laws and reinstate prevailing-wage laws.