PHILADELPHIA (KYW Newsradio) — The City of Philadelphia is notoriously slow at paying its contractors. Pew Trust researchers set out to quantify the problem.
A Pew report released last week showed that from 2020 to 2025, Philadelphia was late in paying 90% of contracts. Researcher Katie Martin said a big part of the problem is that the city enters one-year contracts even if it intends to keep the contractor providing the service for a longer term, which leads to an unruly number of contracts.
“The volume of contracts, about 2,300 annually, really impacts the ability to execute those contracts on time and make sure nonprofit vendors are paid for their work,” Martin said.
Martin noted that late contractor payments create problems for city workers, who get swamped by paperwork, and contractors who must cover expenses to provide services as they wait for the city to pay, but also for residents.
“Most vulnerable Philadelphians are receiving services from these organizations, which are providing meals to people experiencing homelessness, they’re providing behavioral health services, they’re providing after-school programs. If there are delays or interruptions to these services, Philadelphians feel it.”
Mayor Cherelle Parker said the report was not news to her, as late contracts are a longstanding problem. She identified the same problem more than a year ago — around the end of the period Pew studied — and undertook a contract conformance blitz to eliminate the backlog.
Last week, she launched the Philadelphia vendor co-operative to resolve contract issues and ensure contractors get paid on time, and more improvements are coming.
“We’ve embarked on a comprehensive effort to fix what’s underneath it all; that’s the overall process,” Parker said.
The late payments cause issues for city workers and contractors alike
