Forest Service pay hike may result in higher fees

After the Forest Service failed to win an exemption from a prevailing wage law, pay will increase-and in some cases nearly double-for workers at hundreds of campgrounds.

As a result, the National Forest Recreation Association predicts the higher wages could spell higher camping fees. Businesses that run most of the campgrounds may have to boost overnight camping fees, which now range from $7 to $15.

"It will kill this industry relatively quickly," said Pat O'Brien, executive director of the National Forest Recreation Association. Today, about 70 percent of the campgrounds are run by private companies. The businesses generally pay their workers minimum wage or slightly more. But in 1995, while reviewing campground concessions as part of a separate investigation, the Labor Department found that concessionaires should have been paying prevailing wages.

The Labor Department denied the Forest Service's appeal late last year, rejecting the Forest Service argument that campground concessionaires should be treated the same as motel concessionaires, who are allowed to pay employees minimum wage.

Copyright T L Enterprises, Inc. May 1999
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