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Michigan's Prevailaing Wage Law Not Going Away

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State Senate leader all but rules out repealing prevailing wage

The Republican leader of the state Senate says he's not interested in repealing Michigan's prevailing wage law.

"Some other Legislature can do it, but not this one," Senate Majority Leader Randy Richardville, R-Monroe, told reporters Thursday.

Some Republicans see a prevailing wage repeal as the logical next step to the state's right-to-work law.

But Richardville says he doesn't see how repealing the law would benefit workers.

"It's nothing I'm interested in," he said. "I think that what we've done to help workers in the workplace with Freedom to Work, it was a good worker-based kind of thing. I don't see prevailing wage being the same kind of instrument of same kind of issue."

The prevailing wage law guarantees union-level wages and benefits for people working on state-funded construction projects.

Some Democrats fear the Republican-led Legislature will get rid of the law after the November election and before the legislative session ends in December.

Richardville told reporters that he reserves the right to change his mind on that and any other issue.