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Wages and rates are what they are when the unions are present. Unions have their place and can serve a purpose. Not all union related rates or work is over priced and under performed, but an example of this is troubling union work at McCormick Place. During a trade show the unions are required to assemble the vendor booths, deliver them from the loading dock (no matter how small) and are required to plug in small lights for those booths into the power strips provided for each booth. The booth workers are not allowed to touch power cords. I can… Read more »

I was recently downtown in The Loop and could not help but notice that so many stores were closed forever, and that so many restaurants catered to a certain ethnic demographic. Somebody should write an article about this change.

IL is a big government state – everything viewed as a jobs program with patronage possibilities and kickbacks. Now you know why simple government projects take forever to complete and are expensive.

The original intent of the Davis Bacon wage rates was to provide the sometimes seasonal worker with adequate income over the course of the year since construction work could be an iffy proposition depending on the weather and the economy. The issue is that these high hourly rates are also applied to people with full-time positions in government service where there is no or little seasonality and the benefits are often-times better than the union trust fund benefits, including the pension. The laborer at $53 per hour plus fringes, holidays, vacations, sick time has yearly earning of over $100K, excellent… Read more »

That document should not exist. We should have such prosperity that employers would be willing to pay high rates to their good workers. This way, everyone with some skills and willing to work would have no difficulties with finding a well-paid job. The sad part is that we had that kind of system, and it made America great the first time around.

Talk about wage price inflation!

Hi Mark, I was on a Fire District board for 14 years. I voted against the prevailing rate resolution every year as a public protest. The law is burden on common sense-small projects that can be handled by using local, small contractors, could not be approved. I felt it was against my fiduciary duty, that I swore to, to require the District to hire prevailing rate contractors for every job!

Pensions derived from contributions should not be based on a rep!a cement of salary. Rather, A retiring worker should get an account balance consisting of contributions + earnings, if any. If workers want defined benefit they should buy annuities on a salary reduction basis. Government liability should be conditionally limited.

The blue model, at its finest.