Less than a week after receiving a letter from the Goldwater Institute critical of its “prevailing wage” mandate for contractors, the City of Phoenix repealed the ordinance. The Goldwater Institute said there was “a high risk of litigation,” pointing out to the city that the hurriedly passed law violated A.R.S. 34-321, which prohibits prevailing wage laws.
Goldwater Institute staff attorney John Thorpe said in an article after the victory, “Yesterday’s repeal is good news for businesses, their employees, and all taxpayers — and it’s a reminder that Goldwater will never stop fighting to hold government accountable and to defend Americans’ economic freedom from burdensome, counterproductive regulations.”
Thorpe said the detrimental effects of the ordinance included “cutting into businesses’ already-thin margins and making it cost-prohibitive for them to hire entry-level employees, while also forcing taxpayers to pay more and wait longer for public projects to get done.”
The ordinance required contractors to pay their employees salaries per the U.S. Department of Labor’s determined wage for the region.
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