In the thick of a labor shortage, builders compete not only with other contractors for qualified, experienced employees, but with oil producers and companies in other industries that value hard workers with the same unique combination of strong backs and strategic minds that make them perfect for construction work.
Too often, though, contractors lose out on talented job candidates because a competitor lures them away with the promise of a higher salary, bigger bonus, or richer benefits.
The best way to level that playing field is to know what others in the industry are offering—and to match or better those numbers when making a job offer.
Firms that benchmark their salaries and benefits against others in the industry stand a better chance of “being able to attract the best talent to their companies and still be fair to their companies’ interests,” Rose Quint, assistant vice president of survey research for the National Association of Home Builders, said in an interview with Construction Dive. “You’ll be able to set your wages and salaries to a level that will attract talent, but not necessarily pay more than you have to, or less. Less will not attract the talent that you need.”
Quint is a co-author of NAHB’s newly released 2014 Single-Family Builder Compensation Study—available for purchase—which reveals the homebuilding industry’s most-common job titles, the average salary of each position, and the benefits that contractors offer their employees.
The highlights
Although the 2014 study does not compare today’s salaries and benefits with those of 2010—the last time NAHB conducted the survey—Quint says homebuilders are paying their employees more now than they did then. “Nothing we saw is surprising,” she notes.
More of them, however, are offering health benefits to at least some members of their staffs. In fact, health insurance and paid vacations are the most common benefits that the 355 mostly small builders who participated in the study offer to their full-time employees.
The survey data apply to the 39 most common full-time positions at those building companies, but not to subcontractors, part-timers, or day laborers. Many of those positions are executive, administrative, or office jobs. The 10 most common jobs, for example, are: president, superintendent, bookkeeper, vice president of construction, project manager, chief financial officer, director sales and marketing, salesperson, controller, and warranty manager.
The least common full-time positions the builders mentioned are: in-house legal counsel, chief information officer, director of training, director of human resources, network engineer, web designer, land manager, IT manager, and architect.
Who earns the most?
Surprisingly, the highest-paid employees, overall, are the directors of land acquisition, who earn $114,341 a year in salary, not including bonuses or employee benefits. Of the builders who answered the survey, 7% employ someone with that title.
The next most lucrative job on the average builder’s payroll are company presidents and CEOs, who earn an average of $107,511, and are employed by 88% of builders in the survey. Following that are the VPs of construction, at $102,994; the directors of development and training, at $97,500; and the CFOs, at $89,332.
On the low end, office staff, like office managers, administrative assistants, executive assistants, and receptionists, take home between $30,867 and $44,134, the study shows.
Beyond salaries
At least 70% of the homebuilders in the survey offer health benefits to most of their full-time employees, although production managers are far less likely to qualify for them (59%) than other employees. Dental insurance is a more rare benefit, and less likely to be offered to employees across the board than to selected staff members.
Other perks offered by most of the contractors in the study are prescription coverage, 401(k) plans, and paid sick leave. More than half also offer, at least to some employees, flex-spending accounts, long- or short-term disability plans, life insurance, and vision programs. More than half offer training, but only to IT and sales staff. And fewer than half offer tuition reimbursement to any employees.
Using the information
Quint says the NAHB publishes the information at the request of builders, who have said the data helps them decide how much to pay their employees.
“It’s useful to know that they’re not alone in having all of these positions,” she says, “and to know how much they make, what benefits they receive, and which benefits even exist.”