Pay report upbeat

The sixth MRO Today maintenance salary survey, conducted by Compdata Surveys, showed respectable pay increases, especially for hourly workers

by Paul V. Arnold

In a further sign that the U.S. manufacturing industry is slowly rebounding from recession, pay increases to plant maintenance employees rose respectably this year compared to the general populace. That was especially true for hourly maintenance workers, who fared better than most of their department supervisors. Those are among the results of the sixth MRO Today maintenance salary survey, conducted by Compdata Surveys.

Compdata Surveys’ findings are the result of polling 2,165 manufacturing companies from April to June of this year. These firms collectively employ more than 875,000 people, including 22,269 maintenance workers (managers and non-managers). The study for MRO Today encompasses nine industrial 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. (Click here for the complete list of pay rates.)

These nine titles saw across-the-board pay increases, ranging from 4.23 percent for maintenance mechanics to 1.58 percent for maintenance managers. The average increase for the five hourly titles was 3.31 percent. The average increase for the four supervisory positions was 2.4 percent, carried mostly by a 3.81 jump for plant engineering managers.

“Coming into the year, companies representing all industries, not just manufacturing, said that their pay increase budget would range from 3.45 percent to 4.4 percent. That group included high-growth industries, such as health care and education,” says Theresa Worman, director of marketing for Compdata Surveys. “To see industrial maintenance positions reporting increases between 2 and 4 percent is a very positive sign. A 2.86 average increase (for the nine maintenance titles) shows that manufacturing is going with the overall trend. It’s a good indicator that manufacturing is on the mend.”

Other interesting numbers from the report include:
• maintenance employees working in plants with more than 1,000 employees earn, on average, 2.3 percent more pay than those working in plants with 501 to 1,000 employees; 2.84 percent more than those in plants with 201 to 500 employees; 6.54 percent more than those in plants with 101 to 200 employees; and 8.59 percent more than those in plants with 100 or fewer employees.
• maintenance employees working in the East Region earn, on average, 1.33 percent more pay than those working in the West, 2.32 percent more than in the South and 2.64 percent more than in the Central.

To view national salary averages and percentage changes over the past four years, click here.

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 2003 issue of MRO Today magazine. Copyright, 2003.

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