The $280 Billion Problem: What Slow Government Payment Actually Costs Contractors

Last year, slow payments cost the construction industry roughly $280 billion (Rabbet, 2024). That's not a typo — it's the price of a system where the work moves fast and the money doesn't. And it's getting worse: 82% of contractors now report payment delays past 30 days, up from 49% just two years ago.

Here's what those numbers look like on the ground in New York. The city registers contracts late — the NYC Comptroller has reported that one in three contracts registers six or more months behind. The state paid over $4 million in late-payment interest in a single year. Meanwhile your payroll runs every week, your suppliers bill on 30 days, and steel and copper cost 16–21% more than they did in January.

The gap between when you earn money and when you receive it isn't a personal failure — it's a design flaw in public contracting. 97% of general contractors now admit they pad their bids just to cover financing costs. The whole industry is pricing this problem. The question is whether you keep paying the invisible tax or fix the pipe.

The fix exists, it runs on the government's credit rather than yours, and looking costs nothing. That's what this firm does — for government contractors, and only government contractors.