There is a HUGE, untaxed cash economy in California - construction workers, illegal or not, are paid in cash - this keeps them eligible for government benefits - and also gets them out of paying child support - a local lawyer told me they now send agents out to the work sites to collect child support payments straight from the foreman, that is the only way they could get it.
I also live around a lot of Eastern Europeans and they always ask for cash - for tires, for catering (got a 20% discount plus free desserts for paying cash), for haircuts - I had an expensive fence put around my property, the owner of the company asked for payment in cash, which I did, saved me the state sales tax, which is over 10% around here.
California also has the highest percentage of welfare recipients of any state - as productive citizens and businesses flee the state - this is not sustainable.
Our city recently had a contract with a private company for upgrades of the street conditions regarding gutters and sidewalks. It was extensive work on our street and three streets connected to ours, lasting about two weeks of daily 8am to 5pm work.
When some residents learned of what the city intended and contratced for regaring their sidewalks, they inquired with the company’s crew chief if they could get more than that done. The crew chief said they could if they paid for the extra work in cash, which would be money on top of what the city was paying with their contract. The crew chief was fair enough to give them an estimate, and in the cases I know of myself the estimates were lower than if it was a separate contract for that work alone. So, for the home owners it was a good deal. Those changes were quite a lot and amounted to thoudandas of dollars just on our street.
We learned that process was normal for that company and the cash was used to help pay their laborers, in cash.
So you’re doing the same thing the people paid cash under the table are doing?