South ABQ News

The Association of Builders and Contractors (ABC) has ranked New Mexico's construction industry 34th on its most recent evaluation known as the Merit Shop Scorecard. 

This ranking of state construction environments grades each state's labor laws and other factors of merit. The seven criteria are project labor agreements. prevailing wage laws, right-to-work laws, public-private partnership, workforce development, career and technical education, and the job-growth rate.

Improvements were seen in workforce development and job growth in New Mexico's construction industry. The state offered more than $40 million in incentives and grants for workforce preparation and development in 2019, current labor supply meets 97 percent of peak labor demand and the job-growth rate has increased to 3.6 percent.

Improvement was also seen in education. More than 90 percent of career and technical education high school graduates went on to college or careers.

New Mexico still falls behind its neighbors in several labor law areas. Especially crippling are a lack of right-to-work laws and lack of public-private partnerships.

Right-to-work laws guarantee that workers can seek employment without having to join a union. States with right-to-work laws have increased employment and a higher median income, according to Find Law. 

Public-private partnerships allow private companies to help assist with funding for public projects. These arrangements can help organizations navigate budget issues and potentially improve the quality of services offered. There is currently no statute authorizing or prohibiting public-private partnerships on public construction projects.

The state does have a prevailing wage law which requires that contractors on public projects costing more than $60,000 pay workers no less than the local prevailing wage rate. Levelset says that, in a way, it acts as a minimum wage for construction workers. 

"Prevailing wage requirements discourage many small and minority-owned contractors from bidding on public projects," according to ABC.