Can a Michigan municipality require contractors to pay union-level wages when they are awarded government contracts? On December 8, 2022, a 3-0 panel of the Michigan Court of Appeals answered the question in the negative. The court found that a policy adopted by Meridian Township, Michigan violated a 2015 state law known as the Local Government Labor Regulatory Limitation Act (LGLRA), which forbids local governments from requiring contractors to pay their own employees union-level wages.
A prevailing wage is the basic hourly rate of wages and benefits paid to similarly employed workers in a given trade or profession, usually tied to a specific geographical area. One of the principal reasons for prevailing wage laws is to ensure that government dollars do not weaken existing local wage and benefit rates and to attract a certain level of skilled workers.
In 2021, Meridian Township adopted guidelines that purported to require any contractor doing work relating to projects, property, and expenditures over $50,000 for the Township to pay "the prevailing wages and benefits.for corresponding classes of craftsmen, mechanics, and laborers as determined by the United States Department of Labor for the Ingham County area." A trade association filed a lawsuit alleging that these guidelines violated Michigan state law.
The trial court entered judgment in favor of the trade association, finding that the Guidelines inappropriately required employers working on Township projects to pay a...
Unfortunately, Gregg Phillips’ claims that he was twice teleported from one place to another aren’t the biggest problems for this top government official with a long history of shady deals, charit...