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UC BERKELEY <br />LABOR <br />CENTER <br />Research Brief <br />UC Berkeley Center for Labor Research and Education <br />January 2022 <br />The Public Cost of Low -Wage Jobs in the <br />US Construction Industry <br />By Ken Jacobs, Kuochih Huang, Jenifer MacGillvary, and Enrique Lopezlira <br />Summary <br />Construction in the United States was historically known as an industry where workers <br />without a college education could find family -supporting jobs. Now, job quality for some <br />construction workers has deteriorated to the point that they earn wages too low to make <br />ends meet and therefore fall back on the public safety net to make up the difference. In this <br />paper we look at the use by construction workers and their families in the United States of five <br />means -tested safety net programs. We find that 39% of families of construction workers <br />are enrolled in one or more safety net program at a cost of almost $28 billion per <br />year. In comparison, 31 % of all workers have a family member enrolled in a safety <br />net program. Three times as many construction workers as all workers lack health <br />insurance (31 % compared to 10%). <br />Introduction <br />Construction is one of the largest industries in the United States. There are approximately <br />10 million people employed in the construction industry, about 1 in 16 workers nationally.1 <br />Just prior to the COVID-19 pandemic, in 2019, construction contributed $903.6 billion, or <br />4.2%, of U.S. GDP.2 It accounted for $812 billion in personal income, or $1 out of every $23 <br />in total national earnings in 2019.3 <br />The construction industry is bifurcated into low -road and high -road sectors, which have <br />strikingly different working conditions. For many non -college -educated blue-collar workers <br />in many parts of the country, the construction industry provides a high -road, viable path <br />to the middle class: workers are paid family -supporting wages and benefits, receive good <br />training, and are provided with safe worksites backed by workers' compensation protection. <br />The low -road sector of construction, however, "feature[s] some of the worst labor practices <br />in the United States" —low wages, no benefits, exploitation, and often illegalities including <br />wage theft and payroll fraud.4 <br />