A high-stakes housing and labor fight is unfolding in Sacramento. This spring, the California Assembly granted initial approval to a contentious measure that would speed up townhome subdivisions while locking in a $28-per-hour minimum for construction workers on those projects. The bill cleared the lower house on May 21 by a 47–33 vote and now heads to the state Senate, with supporters touting a lift for low-wage residential crews and opponents warning of potential fallout for prevailing-wage rules.
Authored by Fullerton Democrat Sharon Quirk-Silva, AB 1751 creates a ministerial “Missing Middle Townhome Ownership Act” that ties the new wage floor specifically to townhome projects, according to LAist. The Assembly roll call shows the measure passed 47–33, per LegiScan.
How the wage floor works
The bill text sets the $28 minimum and directs the Department of Industrial Relations to adjust that rate every year using the BLS CPI-W, according to Legislative Information. It also tells the DIR not to factor those townhome wages into calculations of the state’s prevailing wage for public projects. The proposal extends certain enforcement tools, including access for joint labor-management committees, and makes developers potentially liable under parts of the Labor Code if required wages are not paid on covered townhome jobs.
Why some unions object
The fight has turned unusually sharp inside the building trades. The State Building and Construction Trades Council argues the $28 floor could end up pulling down the “prevailing wage” because federal wage surveys used for Davis-Bacon determinations might adopt the lower rate, a concern union lobbyists raised during hearings, according to CalMatters. Critics on the Assembly floor warned the measure could create a new benchmark for residential pay that undercuts union rates on some projects.
Backers call it a fix for low-paid crews
Supporters, led by the California Council of Carpenters, counter that the $28 floor is aimed at nonunion residential workers who often earn close to the state minimum and that it is not designed to undercut union wages, per LAist. Danny Curtin, director of the California Council of Carpenters, told lawmakers that raising pay for nonunion workers “will not bring everybody else’s wages down,” calling the wage floor an organizing opportunity for his union.
What happens next
With the Assembly vote complete, AB 1751 now moves to the Senate for committee hearings and fiscal review, a process that will determine whether the wage provisions or ministerial townhome approvals are revised, according to LegiScan. Senators will have to balance the push to produce more townhomes against the risk of complicating prevailing-wage rules that apply to many affordable and publicly funded developments.
Legal and policy questions
The bill explicitly bars the state’s DIR from using $28 townhome wages when setting state prevailing wages, yet critics note that federal Davis-Bacon surveys and wage determinations could still be influenced, according to CalMatters. Labor attorneys say the interaction between state statutes and federal wage rules will be the key factor that decides how far any ripple effects actually spread if AB 1751 becomes law.
