Nevada's prevailing wage under inspection

Gov. Kenny Guinn and state Labor Commissioner Terry Johnson are taking a go-slow approach in changing the way Nevada's prevailing wage law is enforced.

Johnson made a recent concession to organized labor by proposing to keep a ''30 percent rule'' for another year.

Under that rule, a wage that's paid for up to 30 percent of the hours worked by a particular craft must ''prevail'' on most state and local government public works jobs.

Johnson wants to move to a money-saving 40 percent standard, but that wouldn't affect wages until October 2001. And he has backed off from his original proposal to adopt a ''50 percent plus one'' standard now required for federal projects.

''We are trying to do everything in moderation,'' Guinn said. ''I don't think you should make too many changes at once.''

The Las Vegas Review-Journal just published its own analysis, based on the labor commissioner's records, finding that prevailing wages on a typical high school project in Clark County run 41 percent higher than they would in the open market.

One reason is that current prevailing wages, which are supposed to be based on a state survey of pay labor on commercial and public works projects, mainly reflected union pay scales.

The broader the survey, the more likely it will pick up lower, nonunion pay levels. That would translate into savings of millions of dollars on public works projects.

Johnson has sought the help of contractors' organizations in getting all their members to participate in the 2000 wage survey currently being conducted.

''If we don't get participation this way, we may have to take another step,'' said Guinn. ''We may have to tell contractors, if you are going to participate in this system on the benefit end, getting these public contracts, you are going to have to fill out these survey forms to make sure the system works properly.''