JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. (AP) — The Missouri Legislature passed a bill Monday that would change the way wage requirements are calculated for construction projects in rural counties. Missouri's prevailing wage for public works projects is calculated for each construction trade on a county-by-county basis. The wage is currently based on voluntary wage surveys submitted by contractors performing work in a given county, but when no wages are reported, the collective bargaining rate for that trade is used. Republican lawmakers say that system is flawed and the calculated prevailing wages for rural counties don't accurately reflect typical pay for those areas. They argue the system creates artificially higher wages that local governments cannot pay, leaving many public works projects incomplete. "A lot of counties are not adding on to schools and are not doing school repairs," said one of the measure's sponsors, Sen. Dan Brown, R-Rolla. Legislation cleared the Senate last week, and the House approved it Monday on 93-64 vote. It would divide the voluntary wage surveys between union work and non-union work. Then the wage would be set by whichever group, union or non-union, reported more hours of work in that county during the year. If there are no reports for a given year, then the wage would be set by an average of reports in the county from the last six years. If contractors don't turn in surveys during that time period, then the wage would be set by an average of reports from the previous six years in adjacent counties. If that fails, the prevailing wage would become the current collective bargaining rate for a specific trade in the county.