She had worked as a lobbyist and CEO of the Associated Builders and Contractors association of Western Oklahoma. She was well aware that prevailing wage determinations had long been at or near the union scale, and decided to turn detective to see if she could find evidence of hanky or panky. So the evidence was confirmed. Dr. Thieblot says there is another kind of fraud, which he calls structural fraud, which exists because of rules and administration tilted in favor of setting wages near the union scale. We have no study of the impact of Oklahoma's prevailing wage law, but every member of a school board understands that school buildings and gyms they built before 1995 cost taxpayers more than they should have.
Every city official understands how the law is slanted against taxpayers.
So do county commissioners, members of boards of regents, and every other agency of government which must construct facilities. He says his labor component usually has been 20 percent to 25 percent higher than market. Some of those wage determinations just did not make sense. Normally the prevailing wage law has increased wages by a minimum of 15 percent to 20 percent and maybe as high as 35 percent to 40 percent above market for jobs that included a lot of specialized work. Two responses do not a survey make.