Comparison of Union and Non-Union Bids on Ohio School Facilities Commission Construction Projects
Dr. Alan Atalah

Abstract
In 1997, the Ohio senate passed Senate Bill 102 which established the Ohio School Facilities Commission as a separate agency to oversee the rebuilding projects of the public schools in Ohio. To lower the construction cost, the bill exempted construction contractors from paying prevailing wages on these projects based on the hypothesis that this exemption would save the Ohio tax payer 10.7%. Many other studies concluded that these savings would range from 1.5 to 26%. The purpose of this research was to investigate this hypothesis through the statistical analysis of 8093 bids received for the schools’ construction from the years 2000 through 2007. Union contractors- who paid their workers union wages-and non-union contractors- who did not pay prevailing wages- bid these projects. By comparing the bids/SF from both groups (union and nonunion), the hypothesis was tested. The research indicated that there was no significant difference between the bids for union contractors and the bids for non-union contractors.

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