According to current Nevada law (NRS 338.080), contractors working on public projects costing more than $100,000 must pay their workers the prevailing wage. Essentially, this means that contractors are not allowed to hose their employees by paying them minimum wage if they work on a project funded by the taxpayers.
Gardnerville’s own Republican Assemblyman James Settelmeyer has co-sponsored a new bill which will destroy the fair wage provision of the existing law. AB195 was introduced on February 18th by a whole gaggle of Republican Assemblymen and one Republican Senator: Goicoechea, Goedhart, Hardy, Cobb, Carpenter, Christensen, Grady, Hambrick, and Senator Rhoads.
AB195 raises the minimum cost requirement from $100,000 to $3,000,000. In other words, the Republicans have eagerly listened to their Big Developer contributors and have hosed Nevada’s citizens. In these tough times, your average working Joe could sure use a paycheck that meets prevailing wage standards instead of some minimum wage stipend.
What is different about a project that costs $250,000 versus a project that costs $4 million? The construction workers do the same work. Just because a project may cost less than $3 million doesn’t mean that the work itself is any easier. Let’s say one contractor gets a job fixing a pedestrian bridge over the Truckee River for two million dollars. Then, compare that to another contractor that gets to build a highway bridge for fifteen million dollars. What’s the difference to the workers? A skilled welder still makes the same fillet weld on either project. A supervisor directing a concrete crew still has to know how to complete a successful pour. If a pre-stressed concrete beam falls on a worker’s leg, the injury is the same. If a worker slips and falls from either project, they get killed. Why should the workers on the less-expensive project be paid less?
It’s because Republicans like Settelmeyer have allied themselves with big business and developer interests that only have greed as a motive. There is no concern whatsoever for the working families of Nevada; it doesn’t matter if they vote Republican or Democrat; they are only annoying gnats to politicians that suckle at the teats of big business. This is exactly the kind of behavior that destroyed America’s economic stability over the last 8 years, and it’s disgusting to see it continue today.
Keep your eye on Settelmeyer. He’s also submitted Bill Draft Request 28-387 which would further limit prevailing wage requirements to only a few counties.
Tags: Developers, economics, Gardnerville, nevada, Politics, republicans, settelmeyer
