$54 an hour for landscapers is nuts

Recently I read in your opinion section a piece named “State should back off wage push.” This article was about the problems the state of Illinois creates for its many municipalities by demanding they pay Illinois Prevailing Wage for any little or big landscape job they do.

There are two problems here and they are very little understood; and that is how those that benefit want it. One, Illinois Prevailing Wage is simply the highest possible union wage. There is no survey made like the Federal Department of Labor does. Two, landscaping is not in Illinois recognized as a trade. This means that any segment of work in a construction contract that doesn’t have a trade reverts to the Laborers Union.

These workers are, in the Chicago area, paid about $54 per hour, including benefits.

Many landscape contractors have agreements with other unions at much more reasonable rates, but this does not count because the Illinois Department of Labor will not change the rules or recognize landscaping as a trade. The landscape rates are about $36 an hour for an equipment operator and about $14 to $24 for a plantsman.

Federal Prevailing Wage is close to these rates. It does not take a great scientist or mathematician to see why Illinois is going broke, and no tax increase will save it.

Thank you, Mount Prospect, for rising up and questioning this insanity. Nothing will happen until all the other “Mount Prospects” rise up and tell the state of Illinois they have had enough of this waste of their taxpayers money.

Peter Orum

St. Charles