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Pay-When-Paid vs. Pay-If-Paid: The Clause That Can Decide Whether You Get Paid at All
Most subcontractors skim contracts looking at scope, price, and schedule.
Buried in the middle somewhere — usually in dense legal language — is a clause that can completely determine whether you get paid.
It will say either:
“Pay-When-Paid”
or
“Pay-If-Paid”
They sound almost identical.
They are not.
And if you don’t understand the difference, you could be financing someone else’s project without even realizing it.
Pay-When-Paid: A Timing I
…
Feb 13th 2026