Michigan ‘Prevailing Wage’ Construction Rule Upheld by Court (1)

Contractors bidding for billions of dollars of Michigan state-funded construction projects must provide workers a prevailing wage despite the state’s mandatory-wages statute being repealed four years ago, a court ruled.

Gov. Gretchen Whitmer’s Department of Technology, Management & Budget has independent authority to go-it-alone and impose wage standards because Michigan law permits agencies to create their own criteria for what constitutes a “responsive and responsible best value bidder,” Michigan Court of Claims Judge Douglas B. Shapiro ruled Monday.

The state’s “Management and Budget Act provides defendant with broad discretionary authority, which encompasses the ability to establish a prevailing-wage policy,” Shapiro ...