New Study Says What We've Known for Decades, Minimum Wage Laws Drive Up Costs

Shocker.  "Prevailing wage" laws, the left's new and improved high-octane minimum wage law concept, drive up costs for public projects and sap taxpayer resources that could be used for other things.  The report is obviously flawed since it comes from that notorious right-wing swamp...um, er...Columbia University...huh?

A new study examining the effect of prevailing-wage laws, which set a minimum salary for construction workers on public projects, concludes that they drive up the cost of taxpayer-funded projects in New York state by as much as 30%.

The report from Columbia University's Center for Urban Real Estate, to be released on Tuesday, wades into a thorny debate over the laws, which in New York mandate that trade workers on public projects be paid on par with existing labor agreements.

The study is inconvenient as unions are salivating over a gusher of money set to flow from Andy Cuomo.

The study comes as Gov. Andrew Cuomo has proposed to spend $16 billion a year on infrastructure through his New York Works program. The use of prevailing wages would tack $3 billion annually onto that plan, the study says.

It's not like the Empire State couldn't use $3 billion for this and that while still building what it wants to build (like an unneeded convention center in Queens, b/c visitors come to NYC to go to Queens...)

Here's my favorite part:

Critics of the study said Ms. Vitullo-Martin erred by simply comparing union and nonunion workers and ignoring the benefits they say trade unions offer, including better-trained workers and managers

Yeah, all those extra benefits like no-show jobs, over-billing, and general all-round corruption.