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A comment on Tunnels in the US cost more than anywhere else. Parent comment

Re:Tunnels in the US cost more than anywhere else by burntwater on Monday November 02, 2020 @03:20PM (#24972726)
I regular work with and PM projects using union labor in NYC. The rates here are about what I would expect for take-home pay. I.e. they take home (pre-tax) closer to $70/hr than $30/hr. One thing not made clear in the article is if the hourly rates they quote are pre or post benefits. When I budget out projects, my spreadsheets have two columns, hourly wage, and hourly + benefits. Depending on the particular union, the benefits can be as high as 60%. So the real cost to me, the PM, is $70+$42 = $112/hour straight time.
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Re:Tunnels in the US cost more than anywhere else by pwinnski on Monday November 02, 2020 @05:03PM (#24973981)
Wow, seems like I was misinformed, then. That seems unsustainable to me, but I guess time will tell.
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Re:Tunnels in the US cost more than anywhere else by burntwater on Monday November 02, 2020 @05:32PM (#24974271)
It can certainly be painful from a management standpoint. But actually the biggest pain point isn't the hourly wages -- we all love to earn money, after all. The biggest pain point is labor minimums. If you need to hire from Department A, you need to hire a minimum of 3 people even when only 1 is needed. Or if you need to hire from Departments A and B, then you're required to also hire Departments C, D, and E (all with their minimum crew requirements).

It makes for accomplishing smaller projects near prohibitively expensive. And typically you can't gang together multiple projects in order to optimize labor usage.

Honestly, I have very mixed feelings about the arrangements I have to work with.

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Re:Tunnels in the US cost more than anywhere else by skeletal88 on Tuesday November 03, 2020 @08:16AM (#24979328)
So this is the real reason for high costs in construction in the US. Absurd "labor minimums" ? Haven't heard about anything like this here in Europe..
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Re:Tunnels in the US cost more than anywhere else by someguydave on Tuesday November 03, 2020 @08:32AM (#24979453)
Are those labor minimums union rules or are they imposed by government regulation?
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Re:Tunnels in the US cost more than anywhere else by pwinnski on Tuesday November 03, 2020 @12:14PM (#24981589)
Good question. I assumed union rules, but I could see OSHA being the factor here, too.
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Re:Tunnels in the US cost more than anywhere else by burntwater on Tuesday November 03, 2020 @05:45PM (#24984907)
For me, they're negotiated union rules.
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Re:Tunnels in the US cost more than anywhere else by someguydave on Wednesday November 04, 2020 @10:49AM (#24990069)
Why can’t you hire non-union labor? Is it unavailable?
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