Ethical challenges in the construction industry are bid shopping, no-payment issues, lying, "lawyering up," inflated claims, false claims, threats, and even employee embezzlement. As an employee of a specialty trade subcontractor, I'm going to be looking at bid shopping, no payment, over billing illegal aliens, and wage theft. With oftentimes razor thin margins and stiff competition, construction companies try to maximize profits by any means necessary. Bid shopping has been the longtime leader of unethical practices. It's the process by which solicited bids are divulged as leverage with contractors to lower their prices. This is seen more often in specialty and trade contractors. Bid shopping may lead to a breakdown in trust and collaboration and is likely to cause a more contentious atmosphere between owners, contractors, and subcontractors.
             Non-payment issues have become a fast growing problem. The economic downturn hit the construction industry hard. Many contractors found themselves without new work on the horizon and/or stuck in one of the many stages of a project. Even before the recession began, payment has been a hot topic in the industry. Contractors would use excuses such as unacceptable product or technicalities of a contract (insurance, hours to be worked, performance) as a means to withhold payment. Contractors have often over-bid the price on projects. It is believed that contractors should unbalance the bid/front-end load of the project even though they collect money in a timely manner. If a contractor, particularly a subcontractor, doesn't unbalance the bid, the difference in cash disbursed against cash received on a project can be enormous, and no one would notice, because most accounting systems do not detect it," he says. "When examining the job, you will find that you are funding labor and other costs but you're not being paid in a timely manner.
             Another issue I find even more unethical and a large dilemma is...