Prevailing wage law has enforcement provisions

LANSING — Democrats who restored Michigan’s law requiring higher pay and benefits on state-financed construction projects went a step further, adding enforcement provisions they say will empower regulators to crack down when workers are shortchanged.

The changes tripled the length of the original bill, which would have simply reinstated the 1965 prevailing wage law that Republicans repealed in 2018. The amendments were added shortly before final votes occurred in March.

They are drawing criticism from the law’s detractors, including nonunion contractors that say they are designed to discourage them from bidding on prevailing wage projects.