California lost more than $774.9 million in state taxes, benefits and fees in 2011 due to construction worker misclassifications and undocumented activity, says a new study by a Los Angeles nonprofit research group that was underwritten by the carpenters' union.
The report contends that 16% of California construction jobs—in a $152-billion industry that employed 895,000 people in 2012—was work done off-the-books in 2011, and it points to similar problems nationwide.