Construction compliance, in one place. Twelve regimes. One checklist.
Construction compliance is the set of twelve regulatory regimes that govern a contractor's work: safety, wages, employment, immigration, liens, insurance and bonding, environmental, sustainability, tax, licensing, public works and dispute resolution. Every contract triggers a subset of the twelve, so read the bid documents with a compliance lens before pricing and assign a named owner to each regime.
Which regulatory regimes govern construction?
Twelve regimes apply to construction, from OSHA safety and prevailing wage to licensing and dispute resolution. Each regime below is a separate set of forms, deadlines, and audit triggers. Most contractors are familiar with three or four; getting blindsided on one of the others usually means a six-figure surprise. The shorthand for each card: who regulates it, the headline document, and the page that covers it in depth.
OSHA
Federal occupational safety + state OSHA equivalents. OSHA 300/300A/301 logs, 30-hour training for supervisors, written safety plans, near-miss reporting, fatality reporting within 8 hours.
Triggers: any covered employer with 11+ workersPrevailing Wage + Davis-Bacon
Federal DBA + state little-Davis-Bacon + CBA stacking. Wage determinations, certified payroll (WH-347), classification, fringe accounting, apprentice ratios.
Read the full guide →EEOC + Affirmative Action
Title VII, ADA, EEO-1 reporting (50+ employees + federal contractor), OFCCP affirmative-action plans for $50K+ federal contracts. Goals for minority + female participation tracked at apprenticeship level.
Triggers: federal contracts > $10K (basic) / $50K (AAP)E-Verify + I-9
I-9 employment-eligibility verification on every hire. E-Verify mandatory for federal contractors + 25 states (AZ, GA, MS, NC, SC, TN, UT, others). 1099-vendor scrutiny rising under USCIS audits.
Triggers: federal contracts ≥ $150K + state mandatesMechanic's Lien Laws
Every state has its own lien statute. California: 20-day preliminary notice. New York: 8 months to record. Texas: notice required by 15th of 2nd month following work. Miss the deadline = lose lien rights.
Lien waivers guide →Insurance + Bonding
General liability, workers comp (state-mandated), commercial auto, builder's risk, pollution liability. Federal projects ≥ $150K: Miller Act payment + performance bonds; state Little Miller Acts for state work.
Insurance guide →EPA + USACE + State DEQ
NPDES Construction General Permit (CGP) for site > 1 acre. Clean Water Act §404 (wetlands), §401 (water-quality cert). RCRA hazardous waste. Asbestos (NESHAP). Lead-paint (RRP rule).
Triggers: virtually every commercial projectBuy Clean + LEED
Federal Buy Clean (GSA + DOT + DoD), state Buy Clean (CA, CO, NY, OR, NJ, MN, WA), LEED v5 embodied-carbon prereq, EPDs for covered materials.
Sustainable procurement →Worker Classification + 1099
W-2 employee vs. 1099 independent contractor. IRS 20-factor test, state-specific ABC test (CA, NJ, MA). Misclassification = back FICA + state UC + employee benefits clawback + penalties.
Triggers: every payment to a workerBusiness + Trade Licenses
Contractor's license (state-issued, exam-required in 35 states), municipal business licenses, specialty trade licenses (electrical, plumbing, HVAC, low-voltage), occupational permits.
Triggers: any work in a licensing statePublic Works Statutes
Per-state public works codes — competitive bidding requirements, low-bid statutes, P3 procurement frameworks, design-build authorization, escalator clauses. Read before bidding.
RFP/RFQ guide →Dispute Resolution Frameworks
FAR Disputes Clause for federal contracts, AAA Construction Industry Rules for arbitration, state prompt-payment statutes, mediation-first stepped clauses. Path is contract-set.
Dispute prevention →How do contractors stay compliant?
Map the contract to regimes
Every contract triggers a subset of the twelve. Read the bid documents + spec division 01 with a compliance lens before pricing.
Calendar the deadlines
Certified payroll weekly, OSHA 300 yearly, EEO-1 yearly, preliminary lien notice within 20 days, NPDES NOI before disturbance. Each has its own clock.
Designate owners per regime
"Compliance is everyone's job" = nobody's job. Assign safety, wage, EEO, and lien to specific named owners with backup.
Cascade to subs in writing
Flow-down clauses for Davis-Bacon, E-Verify, EEO, OSHA training, Buy Clean. Subcontractor signs in writing; you collect their compliance docs at first payment.
Document contemporaneously
Daily logs, JHAs/AHAs, toolbox talks, training certs, payroll, OSHA 300, E-Verify confirmations — every regime is a documentation regime first, a process second.
Quarterly compliance review
Cycle through the regimes — what's current, what's lapsed, what's coming. Better one self-flag per quarter than one DOL surprise per year.
Closeout = compliance audit package
Final lien waivers, retention release, OSHA 300A annual posting, certified payroll archive, submittal EPD/HPD compliance findings, AAP recordkeeping. Bundle for owner + your own archive.
What do auditors ask for first?
Auditors ask first for each regime's core records, for example OSHA 300/300A/301 logs, certified payrolls (WH-347), EEO-1 reports, I-9 files, the NPDES NOI and SWPPP, and the 1099 versus W-2 classification analysis. Audits are documentary exercises. The contractor who can produce every document within the retention window from a clean filing system passes; the contractor with a banker's box and someone's laptop fails. Below — what each regime's audit looks at first.
What an auditor asks for on day one
- OSHA: 300/300A/301, written safety program, JHAs, training records (10-hr / 30-hr OSHA cards), incident investigation reports, near-miss log.
- Davis-Bacon: certified payrolls (WH-347), wage determination(s) in effect at bid open, daily timecards, classification roster, apprentice enrollment certificates.
- EEO/AAP: EEO-1 reports, AAP narrative, applicant flow log, hire/promotion/termination data, outreach records.
- E-Verify: I-9 files, E-Verify case numbers, retention-period audit (3 yrs after hire OR 1 yr after termination, whichever later).
- Environmental: NPDES NOI, SWPPP, weekly site inspection logs, BMP installation photos, discharge monitoring reports.
- Tax (DOL/IRS): 1099 vs W-2 classification analysis, payment registers, state-by-state UC contribution records.
How long you keep what
- OSHA 300/300A: 5 years past the year covered.
- Davis-Bacon payroll + supporting: 3 years after project completion.
- I-9 forms: 3 years after hire OR 1 year after termination, whichever is later.
- EEO-1 reports: 1 year (federal); state AAP records often 2 years.
- NPDES SWPPP + inspection logs: 3 years after final stabilization.
- State lien records: Per state — typically 4 years from claim deadline.
- Tax records: 4 years federal; 7 years if any 1099/W-2 dispute likely.
- Insurance certs (own + subs): Statute of repose for the project type (3-10 years state-dependent).
What does it cost to get any one of them wrong?
Sources: OSHA penalty schedule (annual adjustment per 29 CFR §1903.15); DOL Wage & Hour Division 2023 enforcement statistics; USCIS I-9 audit summaries; EPA Clean Water Act §309 penalty schedule; FAR Subpart 9.4 debarment data. Worker-classification multipliers derived from IRS Section 3509 + state-level penalty add-ons.
Compliance is a documentation problem.AI does documentation at scale.
Most compliance failures aren't bad intent — they're documentation gaps under operating pressure. Six projects active, four superintendents, twelve subs each, twelve compliance regimes — the math doesn't work with manual tracking. Trueleveler's engines were built for exactly this shape of problem.
Know what you're signing up for
- Contract Review reads the contract + spec + GC flow-down and flags Davis-Bacon prevailing-wage requirements when they apply, with the triggering clause cited.
- Bid Scope Compliance catches trade-boundary gaps between the prime contract's scope and a sub's proposed scope — the kind of silent gap that leaves a compliance obligation unassigned to anyone.
Track without spreadsheets
- Daily Log Synthesizer rolls subcontractor reports into one daily log with weather, crew counts, and safety events.
- Insurance tracker watches every COI + endorsement on every sub for expiration, additional-insured status, and waiver-of-subrogation language.
- Submittal Reviewer extracts EPD/HPD data from Buy-Clean-covered submittals (steel, concrete, and similar) and flags non-compliance — an industry-wide EPD where the spec requires facility- or product-specific data, an expired declaration, a missing EPD/HPD entirely, or a declared GWP over the spec's threshold.
- Closeout Builder rolls Submittal Reviewer's flagged EPD/HPD findings up by CSI division into the closeout package automatically — a rollup of flagged issues, not a full carbon-budget audit.
Twelve regimes.
One workspace that watches them all.
Trueleveler reads contracts pre-signing, flags compliance regimes triggered, tracks subcontractor flow-down, and bundles closeout deliverables — across every active project. Founding 25 cohort: $99/mo locked for life, 25 spots, no card required to try.
Claim founding spot →Sources
- OSHA PenaltiesOccupational Safety and Health AdministrationOSHA’s current maximum penalties for serious, willful and repeated violations.
- FAR Subpart 9.4: Debarment, Suspension, and IneligibilityAcquisition.gov, Federal Acquisition RegulationThe federal rules for excluding contractors from federal work and where the list of excluded parties is kept.
- Stormwater Discharges from Construction ActivitiesU.S. Environmental Protection AgencyEPA’s page on construction stormwater permits: the 2022 construction general permit and the proposed 2027 permit.
- Independent contractor (self-employed) or employee?Internal Revenue ServiceThe IRS guidance on classifying a worker as an employee or an independent contractor.