United States
The United States is the world’s largest construction market (around US280bn annual delay cost, and the Billd National Subcontractor Market Report’s findings on subcontractor self-financing. It is the vault’s primary anchor for the delay strand of the Construction Payment Problem.
United States [supports] Construction Payment Problem United States [relates] Global Subcontractor Payment Delays
US payment protection is defined by fragmentation. Unlike Australia, the UK or Malaysia, the US has no statutory Construction Adjudication and no national security-of-payment Act. Instead it relies on a patchwork: every state has its own Mechanics Lien statute (a claim against the improved property), most have a Prompt Payment Act setting payment windows and interest, and the enforceability of Pay-When-Paid Clauses / pay-if-paid clauses varies state by state. For public projects — where liens cannot attach to government property — subcontractors instead rely on payment bonds, federally under the Miller Act. A subcontractor’s protection therefore depends heavily on which state it works in and whether it correctly preserves its lien or bond rights.
United States [relates] Mechanics Lien Mechanics Lien [opposes] Pay-When-Paid Clauses
Reform is happening at state level rather than nationally. California’s Senate Bill 61, effective for private contracts from 1 January 2026, caps retention at 5% across all tiers (down from the 10% industry norm) to stop liquidity burdens being pushed downstream, and the companion SB 440 (Private Works Change Order Fair Payment Act) imposes a time-bound dispute-and-payment framework for change-order claims — a recognition that vague change-order “disputes” are a vehicle for abusive withholding. These mirror, at state scale, the UK’s UK Late Payment Reform 2026 direction.
United States [relates] Construction Retention Payments
The US picture is therefore a paradox: the market with the most data showing the payment problem is worsening (delay up from 49% to 82% waiting 30+ days in two years) is also one of the few major markets without the fast statutory adjudication remedy that elsewhere is the front-line fix — it substitutes a powerful but procedurally fragile property-lien system instead.
United States [contradicts] Construction Adjudication
Connections
- Global Subcontractor Payment Delays — market with the strongest (vendor) evidence, source: 2025
- Mechanics Lien — the core US payment-security mechanism, source: 2025
- Pay-When-Paid Clauses — enforceability varies by state, source: 2018
- Construction Adjudication — notably absent in the US, source: 2026
- Construction Retention Payments — California SB 61 caps it at 5%, source: 2026