Welcome to The Pennsylvania Chamber of Business and Industry

The Pennsylvania Chamber opposes prevailing wage, because it arbitrarily raises the cost of construction for projects and increases the cost borne by taxpayers. Ultimately, prevailing wage hinders economic development and job creation efforts in the Commonwealth.

Short of full-repeal of the prevailing wage act, the Pennsylvania Chamber supports various legislative reforms to prevailing wage, including:

. Exempting economic development programs from prevailing wage requirements;

. Clarification and limitation of how prevailing wage applies subsequent to the Penn National decision and full implementation of the legislative changes subsequently enacted in June of 2004;

. Increasing the threshold exemption for prevailing wage projects;

. Amending the definition of “public body” to allow political subdivisions and school districts to “opt in” or “opt out” of prevailing wage requirements;

. Providing for open contracting to guarantee that contracts are assessed and awarded based on quality of work, experience, and cost – not a company’s affiliation with organized labor; and,

. Ensuring that prevailing wage is set at the true prevailing wage rates within a local community