Across all fields of construction, the industry is seeing a severe labor shortage during a time when it should be flourishing. According to the U.S. Department of Labor Statistics, the construction field is one of the few industries having consistent growth in the number of jobs and contracts...
This Week's Second Look
Prosecutors filed the first ever wage theft case in Harris County this week against a homeowner who refused to pay a self-employed independent contractor $2,300 for painting the homeowner’s home worth over $1.5 million. Sonny D. Nicholas, 62, is charged with Theft of Service for work...
Running a business is no simple endeavor, and the challenges that are a part of navigating employment law, especially, seem to be endless. Whether you are hiring someone for the first time or the 50th time, one of the most important questions a construction company must answer about its workforce...
Nearly ten years ago, a group of leaders in the Houston commercial construction industry met to discuss its biggest future challenge, an aging and diminishing craft workforce. Baby Boomers were (and still are) reaching retirement age at the rate of 10,000 people each day, and the construction...
When employees contribute a percentage of their wages to their employer’s sponsored retirement plan, they often assume the money is transferred into their account on payday. Employers have a fiduciary responsibility to ensure that participants’ contributions are remitted to the plan timely....
One of the first things I learned early on as an attorney was that to find a way to resolve a dispute, I first must identify who had the most leverage. When I use the word "leverage" here, I mean that I must find who has the most documentation, circumstances, and written law working in their favor...
Construction isn't just for the guys. In fact, one of the most pervasive myths that we hear all the time here at Construction Citizen is that women are somehow not welcome in the industry. The Houston Chronicle did a great feature on the recent She Builds Houston Construction...
On a recent episode of NPR's 1A, they delved into the real world consequences of stepped-up immigration enforcement in the form of recent workplace raids. From the show notes: "The raids came as the U.S. is experiencing a nationwide labor shortage. While the raided poultry plants held job...
John McManus, award winning editorial and digital director at Hanley Wood, writes in Architect magazine, the magazine of the American Institute of Architects, about the top 10 take-aways from the recent 2018 Housing Leadership Summit. The overall theme of the conference of builders, investors,...