Topic: I don’t know who needs to hear this but PAY YOUR MAINTENANCE TEAM MORE!

I don’t know who needs to hear this but PAY YOUR MAINTENANCE TEAM MORE! One thing about our industry that has never sat well with me is how underpaid most maintenance team members are. We need them to be an electrician, plumber, HVAC tech, pool tech, but want to pay them the same amount as a cashier at Chick Fil A? And then to add insult to injury we MAKE THEM BUY THEIR OWN TOOLS!! We should make being a maintenance tech a CAREER and not just a job. I challenge managers to start to advocate to their regionals and owners to do right by the maintenance and pay them what they deserve.

Thank you for attending my Ted Talk.

Agree 100%

I am speaking about this at Apartmentalize this year and am definitely mentioning this topic and a few other points too.

Agreed!

Couldn't agree more! I just had this exact conversation with my regional this month. My maintenance guys got unbudgeted 10% increases. They deserve more but it's a start.

Yes girl YES!!! This is what I’m talking about! Unless us managers start to have that conversation and start to advocate for our teams then we cannot expect change to happen!

YES!!!
How can we expect a man (or woman for that matter) to provide for their family with $16-$18 an hour? We want them certified, heck… they can go somewhere else CERTIFIED and make double the money. Then people wonder why we can’t find decent maintenance guys?! No brainer.

I agree wholeheartedly!

I am a capitalist libertarian at heart. The market decides what is the value of a job.

The leading indicators and turnover hiring data CLEARLY illustrate maintenance jobs are MORE valuable than managers owners realize and appreciate.

Exactly! And for most big properties if we actually paid the team a decent wage it would be barely a pin drop as to how it effected the budget and financials.

What has upset me the most as well is if you work for a company for 5-10-15-20+ yrs if you are head office your gifts are worth so much more than any field staff! So where is the team in that? Most make less than a few dollars an hour and have so much responsibility that no one at head office has.

Amen! I have never understood this!!!

Who is to say we don’t already advocate to our regionals and higher? We can talk about it until we are blue in the face and little may change.

It makes me sad the level of truth there is to this statement. I just have to tell myself that change doesn’t happen overnight and that regardless of how many no’s I get I must still press on and fight the good fight

I have been trying since December to get a raise for my part time maintenance tech and can’t get it done! I am hiring at another and have decided to only hire 1 person to both save a little and pay more. I was told I can still only start the one tech at the same rate as before $16. Now granted none of our techs are licensed or certified. The only requirement is 1 years experience and a valid license.

See in this situation that somewhat makes sense especially if they aren’t licensed. I had a tech like that before and we invested in him, got him CPO certified, HVAC certified but then he realized he could make way more money just going to work for an hvac company because we didn’t pay enough. Tale as old as time!

I completely agree. I work for a company that DOES pay our guys well and does value them. They’re happy and staying put as far as I can see. I’ve worked for companies where maintenance Makes less than me though and that never made sense. Which is why we cycled through so many.

It keeps going and maintenance team will unionize for better pay and equality

Maintenance techs can go into a manufacturing jobs and make more money without the on call bull crap. 8 and the gate is the saying. If they want to make more money they can do one a/c job on the side.

Agreed, but for all site staff. I read in here a comment that was on the lines of, they became a PM because leasing doesn’t pay the bills….I mean think about that. If your team isn’t able to pay the bills, this is a huge problem. And likely one of the reasons why hiring and retention is only becoming more and more difficult. Pay a living wage.

I offered to take a pay cut to get my team an extra $1 each. I definitely need them and a good maintenance team is so very hard to find. Especially right now.!

Amen amen amen. They are the backbone of the company they keep the place running.

I think we all deserve more for what we do. I’ve never heard of a maintenance tech making the same as a cashier at Chick-fil-A so that’s a pretty big exaggeration lol I’ve never started an experienced tech for less than $20/hr. Someone with no experience but the knowledge to do the job starts at $16 with the opportunity for an increase after 90 days. Many maintenance supervisors make more than the PM. The entire team including the maintenance staff gets a share of the renewal bonuses monthly. Maintenance supervisors receive quarterly bonuses based on property performance too.

I totally agree we all need to get paid more for what we do! What company do you work for? What state are you in? Because in AZ I have never heard of a tech starting at $20 or a Maintenance Supervisor making more than a PM.

I agree, I fight for every dollar for my workers

Completely agree, that is one of the reasons I went back to construction, I own my company now and get paid for my knowledge and experience.

Your maintenance teams account for a HUGE part of your resident retention.
Those lost trades of plumbing, HVAC, etc that the new techs are learning are a SKILL! The good ones who already have those skills are making 3 times their hourly pay was in property management now, because smart contractors are snatching them up and paying for their certifications!

I wouldn’t even call them a “maintenance team” if I was still onsite.
I would call them some version of “rescue hero’s”, “Skilled fixer’s”, “maintenance magicians”.
They live the schedules of doctors on call.
Pay them!!!

It seems a bit hard to define "what they deserve". How about you pay them what it takes to attract and retain great staff. Great staff in any position have good and more importantly accurate self worth, and will define that for themselves. I mean you can stock your roster with a bunch of loyal doormats but that isn't exactly going be the best recipe for success. If people are willing to work for less than what they really are worth then that problem is the best place to start.

Its funny, we require 3x the amount of gross rent for applicants, but most team members would never be able to qualify based on what we pay.

My was on call 24/7
I person, he was there 18 years!!!! Only made $18.00 an hour and could do it all.
When I left, next Manger fired him. You know how it works. Company didn't even try to keep him. What a loss

Yeah the industry as a whole has gone to shit. I see anyone who is working on site doing two sometimes 3 job titles. Corp totally taking advantage it's worse than ever...Strange tho prices have never been higher.

Amen Bro !
We have done just what you mentioned and we are once again retaining our maintenance teams at this point.
I would like to provide a vote of caution at the same time though, there are folks out there that are just trying to suck up the new higher wages and still have NO accountability after there hired.