Since January, he’s gathered data on 27 different contracts, with only two vendors who declined to provide wage information.
Volinsky believes the state should use its leverage as a major customer for contracted services to insist on a minimum wage of $15 an hour for employees working on state contracts, ranging from highway paving to snow removal.
New Hampshire currently follows the federal minimum wage of $7.25 an hour.
After every Executive Council meeting, Volinsky posts a report called “The $15 an Hour Spotlight,” revealing the lowest hourly wage for each approved contract.
While acknowledging that his idea has little chance of advancing in the current political environment, Volinsky says you have to start somewhere.
“You have to start with awareness,” he said, “which is my purpose distinctly right now. I want people to understand who the state is contracting with, because from that awareness flows the potential for action, and I want to move the state, as we go forward, to specifically setting minimum wages in state contracts so we can directly affect the economy.”
That’s a big reach for someone on the Executive Council, which has no legislative or policy-setting authority. Any minimum wage change in New Hampshire would have to go through the Legislature and the governor’s office, and past efforts along those lines have proven futile.
The councilor from Concord, a prominent attorney best known for serving as lead counsel on the Claremont school funding lawsuits, is not dissuaded.
He acknowledges that the policy he’s proposing is unlikely to be implemented any time soon, given the makeup of the state Legislature and the five-member Executive Council, not to mention a Republican governor.
“As a member of the minority on the council, a lot of what I’m doing is laying foundations,” he said. “That’s why I write these reports.”
Gov. Chris Sununu, while not endorsing Volinsky’s idea, said the state should try to get the best terms on contracts in every respect.
“I don’t mind councilor Volinsky asking what the pay rates are from a labor standpoint,” said Sununu. “The state should use its leverage to get the best contract and the best performance of that contract for the services we’re looking for and that includes all aspects of a contract.”
Sununu’s new Commissioner of Administrative Services, Charlie Arlinghaus, echoed that sentiment.
“I think the council should look at the details of everything, and Councilor Volinsky has a particular interest in wage rates, which I think is terrific,” he said. “There is no detail of any contact that ought not to be examined and asked about. The more information the better.”
Going from information gathering to a mandatory minimum wage for state contracts, however, is quite a leap that neither would support.
Greg Moore, with the conservative policy group Americans for Prosperity, sounded some of the themes that have surfaced over the years as the minimum wage has been debated.
“The solution to continue to see wage gains is continuing the policies that grow the economy. That means making the state more competitive to attract more employers here,” said Moore. “We do that through lowering their costs, like business taxes, health care costs and energy costs, not by artificially jacking up wages through the heavy hand of the government.”
$32.50 an hour is highest
Volinsky’s survey confirms as much. The highest rate was cited by Delucca Fence Company of Methuen, Mass., which has a contract with the Department of Transportation, and pays its lowest paid employee $32.50 an hour.
That’s an outlier, however, as the next highest wage was $18 an hour paid by Continental Paving of Londonderry and a handful of other DOT contractors.
Most of the wages fall in the $13 to $15 an hour range, with the lowest hourly wage in Volinksy’s report so far coming from Alvin Coleman and Son of Conway for a project at the Glencliff Home, at $9.50 an hour.
Only two vendors declined to provide the information, and there is no requirement that they do so, although Volinsky is not above public shaming to reach his goal.
“Bolens Septic and Portable Toilets, LLC of Stewartstown and Rowell’s Sewer & Drain, LLC of Tilton REFUSED TO DISCLOSE WHAT THEY PAY THEIR EMPLOYEES. Please take note!,” he writes in his May 3 council report, all of which are posted on the council website.
Messages left with Bolens Septic were not returned, while a manager at Rowell’s Sewer & Drain acknowledged that the company “respectfully declined” to provide the information.
©2017 The New Hampshire Union Leader (Manchester, N.H.) Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.
