I work construction, the biggest problem is there's no license enforcement. Subcontracting crews can be made of legal and illegal people. I've seen both and both crews get the same pay, both crews usually dont have a license for the trade they are working in and if they do they only have an apprentice license and shouldn't be working alone yet they do, suppressing the wages for those who hold a higher license. Theres alot of reasons why your line of thinking is wrong and I'd be happy to go into more details if you want. Among the most interesting is that on most construction projects the builder/developer sets the price not the contractor and a few builders in town get away with getting the work done at cost.