Union construction work in Minnesota’s $16-billion construction industry pays better wages than non-union work for similar projects, but doesn’t significantly increase project costs, according to a new study, which reached many conclusions disputed by open-shop contractors.

“Minnesota’s unionized construction sector is no more costly than the non-union sector even though it produces higher wages, greater inequality, safer work sites and other things like less reliance on government assistance programs,” said Frank Manzo, director of the Midwest Economic Policy Institute, which co-authored the study.

中西部经济政策研究所总部位于伊利诺伊州拉格朗日，是一个智囊团，在其任务陈述中说，它“促进了企业和工作家庭的体贴经济增长”。

The report, “Building a Strong Minnesota: An Analysis of Minnesota’s Union Construction Industry,” was released July 12. The other co-participants are the Project for Middle Class Renewal at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign and Colorado State University-Pueblo.

这项研究新利luck比较了该州建筑业的工会和非工会工作，自2000年以来，该行业增长了69％，雇用了13万名工人，其中41％是工会建筑工人。

Manzo说明尼苏达州被选为t的一个原因he study is because its current workforce unionization rate is more than double the national average of 18% and is higher than every other Upper Midwest or Great Plains state other than Illinois, which has a 45.7% unionization rate.

The study looked at data from the U.S. Census Bureau and said, based on its data, Minnesota construction workers earned 32% greater average hourly pay than their non-union counterparts.

工会工人的平均小时费率为33.36美元，而研究项目的非工会工人为25.35美元。18luck官网

Researchers analyzed a sample of 640 Minneapolis-St. Paul area school projects done between 2015 and 2017. In total, 71% of the projects were awarded to union contractors and 29% were awarded to open shop contractors.

曼佐（Manzo）说，研究了学校项目18luck官网，因为“它们彼此比您可能看到的任何其他类型的建筑都更相似。这是苹果比较的苹果。”

He said the study also took into account project complexity including what types of trades were involved, whether the project was new construction versus an addition or renovation, and the overall size of the project.

研究人员发现，工会承包商和非工会承包商之间的项目的成本差异在统计上没有显着的成本差异。18luck官网

然而,亚当•汉森章Associa总统ted Builders and Contractors of Minnesota and North Dakota, part of ABC’s national association that represents nearly 22,000 merit/open shop construction and construction-related firms in 70 chapters across the U.S., disagreed with the study and said the comparison was not apples to apples because of prevailing wage laws. The study said prevailing wage laws were not responsible for the pay disparity observed.

“Unfortunately, most of these (school) districts have one size fits all prevailing wage requirements,” he said. “A more in-depth study would have looked at how union labor costs and prevailing wage mandates affect greater Minnesota school districts and taxpayers. We have often seen prevailing wage rates in these areas imported from metro counties, which are not reflective of local area wage rates.”

曼佐说，该研究证明，工会建设项新利luck目的成本与非工会项目相似，因为较高的工会劳动力成本被材料和安全等其他项目组18luck官网件的节省所抵消。18luck.cub

He also said the study shows that union apprenticeship programs provide better training, which contributes to costs savings.

他说：“这意味着，如果工会工人接受了更好的培训或更有效的效率，他们就不必花钱在重做某件事或添加该项目不必要的额外材料上。”

Manzo said the study also disproves the view that labor costs are the greatest driver of project costs. He noted that, on average, across the country, labor is about 20 to 25% of the total cost of construction.

“There is a misconception that unionized construction is more expensive simply because the workers are paid more,” he said. “But that doesn’t take into account the skill levels of the workers, in particular (those developed) through union apprenticeship training programs, the corresponding (increased) productivity levels and (better) safety outcomes that are associated with union construction.”

Responding to the claim that union workers are more efficient than non-union workers, Hanson touted the productivity of open shop construction workers who can handle a variety of tasks on a job site.

他说：“优点商店承包商及其员工通常是多技能的手工艺专业人士，这意味着他们可以执行多种技能，而不是为一种特定的手工艺品而不是鸽子洞。”“例如，电工还可以在必要时做工人的工作，或者木匠可以协助钢铁工人。这提高了生产率和成本效率。”

According to the study, each worker in Minnesota’s construction industry contributes on average $120,000 annually to the state’s economy.

“This is higher than the national average of about $116,700 per construction industry worker and higher than every neighboring state, except Illinois and Michigan,” the study states.

伊利诺伊州的工人捐款为130,085美元，密歇根州的工人为$ 127,189。

The only state with a lower job site fatality rate than Minnesota, which had 1.2 fatalities per 10,000 construction workers between 2015 and 2019, is Wisconsin, which had an 0.86 fatality rate and a 27.8% unionization rate, according to the census bureau data cited.

汉森说，这项研究的说法是工会与安新利luck全相关，这是误导性的，并引用了附近各州的其他人口普查统计数据。

汉森说：“伊利诺伊州的工会率高于明尼苏达州，但死亡率更高。内布拉斯加州的死亡率几乎与伊利诺伊州相同，但它的工会率是三分之一。”

Hanson also noted that the study did not distinguish who is more likely to be the subject of the fatality statistic, whether union or non-union, just that there is some link between the fatality rate and a state’s unionization rate.

该研究还新利luck研究了与工会和非工会劳动区分的更广泛的社会和经济因素。它发现，有91.3％的工会工人被私人保险覆盖，而48.7％的非工会工人，有60.2％的工会工人通过其工作制定了私人养老金计划，而非工会工人的36.1％和州/联邦政府则拥有了私人养老金计划2015 - 2019年的所得税捐款为工会工人为11,824美元，非工会工人为7,026美元。

In addition, it found that union construction workers are less likely to rely on both Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) food stamps and the Earned Income Tax Credit (EITC) government assistance than their open shop counterparts.

“They are 13% less likely to rely on those programs, but they contribute in Minnesota, on average, 48% more in state income taxes than non-union construction workers,” Manzo said.

He said those differences are important "because while they are not captured in the bids, they do have an impact on social costs or taxpayer costs."

The study found that there were 10,219 active apprentices through union programs between 2015 and 2017 compared to 816 non-union apprentices.

Hanson took issue with the study’s assertion that union apprenticeship programs educate 93% of all apprentices in the state. He said the number only includes registered apprentices. He also disputed the study’s assertion that union apprenticeship programs are privately funded.

“The claim that union apprenticeship programs are privately funded is appalling,” he said. “When discussions of prevailing wage reforms take place at the legislature, union lobbyists will regularly say that prevailing wage laws (on publicly funded construction) protect their apprenticeship programs. So much for privately funded.”

The study also used economic modeling to estimate that the state’s construction workers covered by collective bargaining agreements support more than 15,000 additional jobs across all economic sectors and boost the state’s GDP by nearly $2.7 billion per year.

According to Hanson, Minnesota building trades unions have increased their push in recent years to recruit open shop contractors and their employees to join their unions, but he says the non-union option needs to remain.

“When municipalities entertain or adopt restrictive contracting mandates that require union labor, they are essentially telling these Minnesotans — including those who live and pay taxes in their communities — that they are not welcome to work there,” he said. “All Minnesotans, regardless of labor affiliation, should be able to fairly compete to win work on taxpayer-funded construction.”

The study reported that an area where unions have not yet gained a foothold in Minnesota is in the clean energy industry. The study found that workers earn 22% more in fossil fuel power generation in Minnesota than those in the wind and solar power sectors.