As I am listening and learning from our local town and city officials, I am amazed at the explanations and comments I get about the prevailing wage laws in Wisconsin. Rather than taking my comments as gospel, I would encourage you to read about and ask your city council members, town board members or even small local contractors about their thoughts and experiences with this prevailing wage process. As I evaluate it, I see just one more example of how local citizens are overpaying to get our needed work and services completed.
Simply put, it appears that anytime work is performed for a town, city, school, county, etc., the contractor must bid the job at an inflated rate. As an example, if roadwork or roof work would be done at a government site the, contractor might charge $35 per hour for an employee he would normally bill at $17.
