Labor Standards for the Arlington Public Schools Career Center

Arlington County Public Schools should re-issue the Invitation to Bid for the Career Center Phase II Project and include language requiring contractors to pay prevailing wages for the following reasons:

Prevailing Wages are a tool to promote equity.
• Studies show that states without a prevailing wage law would close the pay gap between white and black construction workers by 7% if they instituted such a law .
• Studies also show they significantly increase recruitment of women, Black, and Hispanic workers into the construction industry .
• According to County staff figures, under Arlington’s Prevailing Wage Ordinance, 95% of workers are workers of color.

Prevailing Wages have a negligible impact on construction costs.
• Studies have shown that prevailing wages on public works projects have a negligible impact on costs, while increasing productivity, promoting a local workforce, supporting apprenticeship opportunities, and preventing safety violations.
• Prevailing wages have been in effect on nearly every surrounding public works project – including projects funded by the federal government, Commonwealth of Virginia, Arlington County, Alexandria City, Fairfax County (including Schools), Prince William County (including Schools), Alexandria City, and Loudoun County. Agencies have reported negligible impacts on costs.

Wage Theft and Worker Exploitation are rampant in the construction industry, both on public works and private projects.
• According to a report from the Virginia Secretary of Labor, wage theft is rampant on public works projects.
• Even the new Virginia General Assembly was plagued with wage theft allegations during its construction, with one of the project’s drywall contractors pleading guilty to felony embezzlement and spending 30 days in jail for wage theft violations on the site. This was prior to the adoption of prevailing wage requirements.
• Several schools in Prince George’s County, MD faced widely publicized allegations of widespread wage theft and worker exploitation. The Washington Post noted that, “Labor issues also cropped up in the project’s first phase, when several workers filed lawsuits alleging wage theft by the developer and subcontractors.”