@hat a difference a year makes in the world of Wisconsin’s prevailing wage law.
Last year, the Oakfield School District needed a small painting job done as part of a refurbishing project at one of the small district’s two schools. The project fell within the state’s prevailing wage law – which meant the Fond du Lac County District had to pay painters $22.53 per hour in wages and benefits, according to Jackie Hungerford, administrative assistant with the district.
The work won’t take place until this year, but because the district signed the contract with a local painter in 2014, it was able to lock in that year’s rate, Hungerford says. That’s a good thing. This year, she said, the state’s prevailing wage and benefits package
for that painter in Fond du Lac County is $42.35 per hour, nearly double the cost. “You never know from year to year what the dollar amount is,” says Hungerford. “It makes it hard to bid a job.”
While the painting job will be done, other projects affected by the prevailing wage law will not.