Purse strings tighten

The fifth MRO Today maintenance salary survey, conducted by Compdata Surveys, shows small wage increases and a decrease in pay for new hires

by Paul V. Arnold

Manufacturing companies battened down the hatches on rough economic waters in 2002, holding wages for maintenance employees in check and reducing their hire-on rates. Those are the main findings of the fifth MRO Today maintenance salary survey, conducted by Compdata Surveys.

Compdata Surveys’ findings are the result of polling 2,205 manufacturing companies during spring 2002. These firms collectively employ more than 1 million people, including 20,854 maintenance workers (managers and non-managers). The study for MRO Today encompasses nine maintenance organization titles: plant engineering manager, maintenance manager, senior maintenance supervisor, maintenance supervisor, senior maintenance mechanic, maintenance mechanic, senior maintenance electrician, maintenance electrician and HVAC mechanic.

Compared to the 2001 salary survey, maintenance employees saw little to no pay increase. Standing pat were maintenance supervisors, maintenance electricians and maintenance mechanics (0.1 percent increase or less). All of the other job titles fell within a 2.5 and 3.3 percent pay increase, except for senior maintenance supervisors, who saw a 4.0 increase. Those numbers are in stark comparison to the 2001 numbers, where increases were between 4.5 and 12.4 percent.

Also of note were the pay rates companies gave to newly hired maintenance workers. Six of the nine job titles saw a decrease in pay offered, including a $3,392 drop for HVAC mechanics and a $2,444 drop for maintenance supervisors. Plant engineering managers ($1,723), senior maintenance electricians ($1,090) and maintenance electricians ($323) saw the only increases in hire-on rates.

Click here to view all of the 2002 results, dissected by job title, plant size and region of the country.

This article appeared in the October/November 2002 issue of MRO Today magazine. Copyright, 2002.

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