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New Bill Could Change Ohio's Prevailing Wage Laws

Photo of bills
JO INGLES
/
STATEHOUSE NEWS BUREAU
Past bills to alter prevailing wage laws. Tuesday, two Republican lawmakers will try once again.

Two Republican state representatives will unveil legislation Tuesday to change the state’s prevailing wage laws. Ohio’s lawmakers have been trying to alter those laws for a while now.

Since 1931, Ohio has had a law mandating trade workers on certain state and local projects be paid specific hourly wages and benefits. 

Two Republican lawmakers want to ban the mandate that local governments, universities and others pay the prevailing wage, saying doing so will lower the cost of construction projects.

This isn’t the first-time lawmakers have tried to change the law. There were three efforts to eliminate the prevailing wage requirement in the last General Assembly, but none passed out of committee.

Trade unions have vehemently opposed those bills. This time, unions and Democrats who backed House Speaker Larry Householder could have a strong say in the matter.

Jo Ingles is a professional journalist who covers politics and Ohio government for the Ohio Public Radio and Television for the Ohio Public Radio and Television Statehouse News Bureau. She reports on issues of importance to Ohioans including education, legislation, politics, and life and death issues such as capital punishment. Jo started her career in Louisville, Kentucky in the mid 80’s when she helped produce a televised presidential debate for ABC News, worked for a creative services company and served as a general assignment report for a commercial radio station. In 1989, she returned back to her native Ohio to work at the WOSU Stations in Columbus where she began a long resume in public radio.