California’s creation of the Construction Enforcement Project of the Joint Enforcement Strike Force has delighted contractors in that state, according to Claims Journal. The strike force coordinates efforts between the Contractors State Licensing Board, the Employment Development Department, and the California Department of Insurance with those of county district attorneys and building officials. This has lead to 411 audits over an estimated $48.5 million in unreported wages, among other monies owed to the state. Additionally, stop orders have been issued to uninsured employers, with increased criminal filings for failure to have insurance.

Even with the enforcement, contractors still get underbid by unlicensed competitors, which Terry Seabury of the Western Electrical Contractors Association describes as “an unlevel playing field.” Kate Leyden of the Valley Contractors Exchange hopes that California will “stop making laws that aren’t or can’t be enforced because we can’t compete and survive against the unlicensed, uninsured, cash-paying contractors.”