School Officials Get a Better Quality School at No Additional Cost to the Budget + Prevaling wage contols cost while producing a qually product. Labor only makes up 23% of otal building construction costs in Chie. Reducing wages doesn't produce any savings without paying workers legally below minimum wage. + However, productivity dss cvs the cost of construction. Skilled workers on provaing wage jobs are 15% more productive than ess skilad workers and produce better quality schools requiring less maintenance and repair costs over time. ‘The vast majority of construction work in states with prevaling wage is completed by local bidders, with loss than 10% of all school projects valued above $750,000 done by Out-of-state contractors. Learn more and find sources: i: - Urban Schools. eget Ba 40 Fa es No + The Ohio Legislature exempted school construction ‘rom tne state's prevaling wage lan 200", ancl in 2011 further protiited schools fro choosing to use prevaing wage consiructon. + Since that time, a study ofthe construction of 21 schools in Michigan, Kentucky, and Ohi foundno ‘meaningtlor statistical sigifcant diferonce in te cost of construction based on the prevaling wage. + States that eliminated provating wage saw no savings totaxpayers because qualty, timeliness, and avalabilty of exiled workers suffered, In fac, when Utah repealed, it saw cost overruns triple and apprenticeship programs crop by 38% due to lossosin the skiled workforce. Boing an out-of-state contractor lowers ‘firm's probability of winning a bid on a Publi schoo! construction project by about 5.15% in prevaling wage states.