| Tricks of the Trade™ |
First edition Wednesday February 23,2000 |
Contractors vs. the Underground Economy
Among all the other things we contractors have to contend with daily is the underground economy and how it affects each and every one of us. This is an issue we all have to face, and as a brotherhood we must find ways of making it harder for "fly by night" painters to operate in the United States & Canada. Residential painting is one of the easiest under the table businesses for someone to start overnight, and one of the quickest to see a cash return.
As a licensed and registered painting contractor I am beyond anger when I lose a job to someone who is not collecting taxes, not contributing to the system, not covered by insurance or workers comp, and most of all not knowing what they are doing professionally. Most of us strive to keep our overhead as low as we can, but there are still costs to operate a business, costs we can't avoid. It becomes very hard, if not impossible to compete with someone who is working under the table, while at the same time in most cases collecting unemployment or welfare.
Often times I am faced with doing estimates only to hear back that someone else said they would do the job for a lot less, or in most cases without the added tax on labour. My main method of coping with customers who bargain hunt is to remind them what a licensed professional can offer, such as quality results, liability insurance, and workers compensation for the crew. When a "fly by night" worker falls of a ladder in someone's home they are in a good position to sue the homeowner, and will generally win their case. This fact amazes people and usually is enough to make them think better of hiring the guy down the street.
The underground economy is said to drain millions of dollars annually from legitimate contractors, and its something our governments seem to turn a blind eye on. Here in Canada the powers that be are starting to look at ways of curbing this problem, and its high time. Pressure from contractors associations have begun to see that ways are found to stem the tide of money lining peoples pockets.
What I think troubles me the most with this whole issue is the quality of the work, and the fact we genuine contractors get a bad name from a job that was failed from the start. I have gone to more homes to face someone else's mess too many times, and to hear "the last painter never came back to finish", or "it all started to peel after the painter left". I am quick to discover that these people were not painters at all of course, but people who needed some cash in a hurry and picked up a roller and brush at K-mart and started ringing doorbells. We need to have discussion over these issues, its money we are losing and no one else is going to come along and stop it. We as a group need to find innovative ways of educating the public against fueling the underground economy. I find the people who grip the most about what the country owes them are the same lot who hire through the back door.
The vast majority of visitors to the painterschatroom are pro's as you know. It's a valuable resource of information and there is certainly a wealth of information. You can bet the guy down the street who paints out of his Chevette doesn't come here, hell he probably never read the label on a paint can before. We have dedicated ourselves to a trade that's far too easy to mock, lets make sure we make it as hard as we can on these guys, lets lobby our state and provincial governments to do something, lets voice our opinions to our associations and let them brainstorm……for if we don't the only thing we have to look forward to is higher costs and increased taxes.
Mark McIntyre
Paint Décor & More
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