2002 Recipients of the NLPES Awards

NLPES Excellence in Research Methods Award

The Awards Committee received five applications for the Excellence in Research Methods Award. The committee found that the studies nominated for this award were all commendable.

The project that best met the selection criteria was An Analysis of Kentucky's Prevailing Wage Laws and Procedures, performed by the Kentucky Program Review and Investigation Committee.

This study reviewed numerous previous studies on the extent to which prevailing wage laws, which establish the minimum wage that must be paid to construction workers on certain government-funded projects, may affect construction project costs. The Kentucky staff found these studies inconclusive because they did not credibly control for all of the other factors that may have affected project costs. Consequently, the Kentucky staff tried something different: they got their information directly from contractors themselves. Because prevailing wage laws pertain only to certain types of projects, individuals may work on both types of projects. Kentucky's interviews with several contractors suggested that it was common for construction workers to be paid a lower wage on construction projects not covered by prevailing wage laws.

The Kentucky staff tested this notion by asking a large number of contractors for wage data on both prevailing wage and non-prevailing wage projects during the same time period. They found that individuals who worked on both types of projects were paid different wages for the same type of work. In this way they were able to add something new and meaningful to a debate that had been going back and forth for decades in government and academic literature.

NLPES congratulates Kentucky for a job well done!

Contact::

Ginny Wilson, Ph.D.
Committee Staff Administrator
Program Review and Investigations Committee
Legislative Research Commission
State Capitol
700 Capital Avenue
Frankfort, KY 40601
(502) 564-8100
www.lrc.state.ky.us/home.htm

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