Legislative Alert: May 30, 2025

President's Message

Fix Labor Law 224-a and Require the State to Meet its Prevailing Rate Obligation 

New York’s prevailing rate laws help ensure that publicly funded projects are performed by qualified workers and contractors, thereby creating real economic benefits for communities.

Unfortunately, there are project owners and contractors who would rather avoid this obligation. Some go to extreme lengths, such as fabricating portions of projects offsite, to avoid paying the prevailing rate. These efforts have created confusion and made enforcement difficult. Too often it is the workers and taxpayers who are shortchanged by bad actors in terms of pay and quality.

The New York State AFL-CIO and its affiliates collaborated with the New York State Building and Construction Trades Council to find a straightforward solution to address section 224-a of the Labor Law; ensuring that workers are not denied the pay and benefits they are entitled to. The law was created in 2020 with the expectation that it would expand prevailing wage protections for construction workers statewide on privately owned projects that receive significant public subsides. However, a lack of clarity and ineffective enforcement mechanisms have led to many issues with the implementation of this law, creating frustration for workers.

We cannot accept the status quo. We will continue to work with the legislature and Governor to develop fair and reasonable answers for 224-a that address these issues, and we will fight to make sure that offsite fabrication is not an excuse to avoid prevailing rate.

Construction workers keep our state running, ensure our infrastructure is modern and safe, and boost our economy; all while performing their work under dangerous conditions. The New York State AFL-CIO is committed to ensuring sure they are paid the prevailing rate on publicly funded projects, and we ask our elected officials to join us in making that happen.

Upcoming Meeting

LABOR LOBBYISTS MEETING
Monday, June 9, 2025, 1:00 p.m.
This event will be located at the Albany office of the NYS AFL-CIO,
100 South Swan St. Albany, NY.
This meeting is for labor representatives only.

For further information contact Mike Neidl at 518-436-8516 or by email
[email protected]