Prevailing wage is price city must pay for other reforms, Chicago mayoral aides say

Chicago taxpayers will save $12 million a year by 2021, thanks to health care reforms and increased employee contributions tied to a new five-year agreement with unionized city employees.

Even with those savings, the agreement with unions representing motor truck drivers, plumbers, laborers and members of the building trades will cost the city $12.5 million this year and $57.8 million in the fifth and final year of the agreement.

In part, that’s because it guarantees those employees the prevailing wage paid to their counterparts in private industry. Of the 7,713 “full-time equivalent” employees covered by the agreement, 52 percent fall under the prevailing wage provision.

The new, five-year contract still must be ratified by the City Council and by 34 unions that are part of the Coalition of Unionized Public Employees.

Read more: https://chicago.suntimes.com/chicago-politics/prevailing-wage-is-price-city-must-pay-for-other-reforms-mayoral-aides-say/