Feb. 27, 2025
What happened: On Feb. 24, OBI Executive Vice President and General Counsel Paloma Sparks testified before the House Committee on Labor and Workplace Standards in opposition to HB 2688, which would apply Oregon’s prevailing wage law to off-site manufacturing.
What the bill would do: Prevailing wage laws require contractors working on publicly funded projects to pay union-level wages. Such laws, as Paloma pointed out, are designed for construction projects (think roads and buildings) and cover work done on site. By requiring the payment of prevailing wages to project components built off-site, HB 2688 would apply laws designed for construction to manufacturing. In addition to increasing costs, this law would be difficult for manufacturers to comply with and for the Bureau of Labor and Industries to enforce.
Why it matters: Businesses in Oregon already struggle to comply with complex and rapidly changing regulations. Oregon is also an expensive state in which to operate a business. For these and related reasons, Oregon is in the midst of what state economist Carl Riccadonna has called a “manufacturing recession.” Between December 2023 and December 2024, Oregon lost 2,500 manufacturing jobs. HB 2688 would increase costs for taxpayers and strain an already struggling sector, leading potentially to job losses.
Learn more: Click the video to the right to watch Paloma’s testimony and the button below it to read her written testimony.