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West St. Paul City Council debates strengthening fair labor standards to better protect workers and offer more flexibility for public projects.
Why it matters: The city’s current 25-year-old prevailing wage ordinance is one of only a handful in the state that requires fair pay for city-subsidized projects. But there’s no way for the city to investigate. Currently the city suspects some companies are getting around the prevailing wage ordinance, but they can’t prove it.
- These requirements often increase costs, putting the city at an economic disadvantage.
- City Manager Nate Burkett said it’s not a change in values, it’s making those values real and enforceable: “There are loopholes in our current ordinance that have been exploited,” he said.
- “We have to do something or throw it out, because it looks pretty but it doesn’t do anything,” said Council Member John Justen at a recent Council meeting.
What’s changing: The proposed fair labor standards ordinance would offer multiple ways to comply, including prevailing wage, union labor, and more, while adding more enforcement tools that ensure workers are actually protected.
- Compliance options: Prevailing wage, union labor, sole proprietorship, or living wage (with public benefit waiver).
- Where it applies: The minimum cost threshold for projects will go from $50,000 to $100,000, reflecting inflation since the ordinance was first passed.
- Enforcement tools: Site access, audits, and fines and other ways to fund enforcement.
- Worker protections: The original ordinance assumed paying a prevailing wage would protect workers—that’s not always the case. The changes would add explicit safeguards against misclassification, trafficking, and wage theft.
- Options: Burkett also presented two additional options, one to apply the public benefit waiver requirements to all projects, which will be considered, and another to extend requirements to all building permits, which will require more work and can be explored later if the Council is interested.
But wait: The new ordinance also includes a public benefit waiver that allows for different guidelines if the project serves the public good.
- Why: The challenge of requiring fair pay is it can increase the cost of projects, sometimes making them unaffordable. In cases where the project includes a public benefit—parks, plazas, retail or restaurants, affordable housing, etc.—the Council could adopt a less stringent requirement in order to get the public benefit but still protect workers.
- Approach: This requires a livable wage, defined as 175% of cost of living for skilled workers, 125% for unskilled workers. This is generally lower than prevailing wage, but it is comparable to the federal standard.
- Flexibility: This approach gives the city some flexibility to allow projects but still require worker safeguards. The waiver would require Council approval.
- But controversy: “I know the waiver portion of this is the sticking point,” said Burkett. “The idea that we’re lowering the floor for wages is a little tough to stomach. But you’re going to end up in situations where you can bring something cool in to the city, but as soon as you apply prevailing wage, you can’t do it.”
Where does Council stand?: Overall, Council seemed receptive but cautious. They recognize the ordinance needs improvement, but need to weigh the implications.
- “It does give us a little more flexibility but I also think it strengthens the original intent of our ordinance,” said Mayor Dave Napier.
History: West St. Paul originally passed a prevailing wage ordinance in 1989. That measure applied only to city projects. In the early 2000s it was expanded to any project receiving city subsidies.
What’s next? The city will hold a public hearing at the July 14 City Council meeting.
July 17, 2025 Update: Council Vote
Council had a mixed reaction during the first reading at the July 14 meeting. Two members were opposed to the proposed ordinance, though it advanced to the second reading on a 5-1 vote. Only one person, a union representative, spoke at the public hearing with concerns about the changes. Council did ask for more input from the public on the issue.
July 28, 2025 Update: Lobbyists Rally
Some West St. Paul residents are receiving a flurry of calls and text messages from an unknown group rallying against the proposed update to the prevailing wage ordinance. West St. Paul City Council Member Wendy Berry posted about the lobbying messages:
- Inaccurate information: The messages frame the new ordinance as “rolling back living wage protections for local construction workers.” That’s not accurate. The proposed ordinance strengthens worker protections. The public benefit waiver portion of the proposal does add an option to relax the prevailing wage standard, but then it requires the living wage standard.
- Council stance: “Avoiding wage theft, labor trafficking, and unsafe work sites, for example, are important to me as a person and as a City Council member, and they always will be,” Berry wrote.
- Take: If this group is concerned about worker protections, why aren’t they focused on the city’s assertion that companies aren’t following the existing ordinance?
July 29, 2025 Update: Council Narrowly Passes
The updated prevailing wage ordinance passed on a rare tie-breaking vote from the mayor during the July 28 City Council meeting. The final ordinance included a number of changes recommended by union groups, though the union ultimately opposed the update.
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