Halliburton hired to do Katrina reconstruction

It's hard enough to survive on minimum wage....can you imagine trying to get by on LESS than minimum wage?

I don't think its minimum wage. Prevailing wage is the term used.

I really doubt if they would give a construction worker less than $5.15 if they usually got say, $15. Probably more like $7 though. :|

[Rapunzel]

By temporarily lowering the prevailing wages in the area contractors will be able to hire more employees. More employees can mean reconstruction projects can proceed much more quickly. Additionally, it is estimated that tens of thousands of people in the area are now without employment. Allowing employers to afford more workers allows more people to get some sort of income to feed their families until the area is restored enough to allow for those tens of thousands of jobs to be brought back into thearea and filled. This action allows companies participatingin reconstruction efforts to get more done in a set amount of time while providing much needed employment to the suddenly unemployed thousands and while keeping the costs of reconstruction (that come from our tax dollars) down as much as possible

Would it be better to hire less of the newly unemployed in the area? Would it be better for the reconstruction projects to take a longer amount of time?

Jennifer