NABTU Comments on NY Affordable Housing Wage Standard

TL/DR -

The president of North America's Building Trades Unions (NABTU), Sean McGarvey, supports efforts to establish a meaningful wage standard for affordable housing projects in New York City. He is against an average site-wide wage requirement as it lowers wages for workers at the bottom of the scale and encourages fraud and abuse, making it difficult to enforce violations. McGarvey advocates for a transparent, meaningful wage standard, especially for publically subsidized affordable housing projects, and urges NYC's elected officials to support such a proposal from the Building and Construction Trades Council of Greater New York & Vicinity.

NABTU President Supports Better Wage Standards for Affordable Housing Construction Workers

Washington, D.C. - March 29, 2024 – Sean McGarvey, President of North America’s Building Trades Unions (NABTU), has publicly supported the New York Building and Construction Trades Council’s (NYC BCTC) initiative to establish a meaningful wage standard for workers building affordable housing in the city.

McGarvey stated that a sound housing policy should ensure that those building these units can afford to live in them. He rejected the notion of an average site-wide wage requirement, labeling it as a suppressor of wages for lower-scale workers. McGarvey highlighted the impracticality of this method, as it takes years to calculate due to it being assessed post-project completion. This makes it hard to identify exploited workers, especially those involved in the early construction stages.

The NABTU President pointed out that such a wage standard is not only ripe for fraud and abuse but is also difficult to enforce and remedy violations. He reiterated that misclassification and exploitation are already prevalent in the construction industry and implementing an average site-wide wage requirement would exacerbate the situation.

McGarvey emphasized that wage standards should be transparent and significant, particularly when developers receive public tax incentives. NABTU supports NYC BCTC in their endeavor to bring about a substantial wage standard for publicly subsidized affordable housing in New York City. He also mentioned how NABTU is already building thousands of units in NYC with their pension dollars, providing full union wages, benefits and surpassing market benchmarks on investment returns.

McGarvey called on New York's politicians to back a reasonable, transparent wage standard as proposed by NYC BCTC, saying it would make a significant difference to the lives of construction workers in the city.

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