Topic: Companies need to get ready for Service Managers/Supervisors and Techs that get higher pay than Managers and Office Personnel.

Companies need to get ready for Service Managers/Supervisors and Techs that get higher pay than Managers and Office Personnel. This is already happening and is not uncommon in trade and construction work in many areas and it will start to happen in our Industry. The beginning stages are already here and if you want to have a team that is proficient and lasts there are some changes that really need to take place and they will over the next few years. 

I’d like to hear your thoughts and experiences on this.

That would depend on so many factors-not just a title if it happens

Of course there are factors to consider but it is already happening and will continue.
Have you seen any big increases over the past 2 years?

No not really
it is so difficult to find quality and qualified help. They should be compensated .

I totally agree and we all need to get way ahead of this before the curve to catch up is overwhelming.

Look at the help wanted on Indeed - we already see $5 more per hour than what we pay- it’s real and it’s happing now

There is a shortage due to companies recognizing this. They will pay more to steal your guys. I would go too if it meant I’m paid fairly vs a low balled budget.

My Mnt. Supervisor and I make w/in 3k of one another. Mnt. teams are paid hourly and I am paid a salary. If Mnt. Sup works alot of overtime, they can currently earn more than me (PM). I am fine with this! I do not begrudge my Mnt. peeps anything! They work hard & phsyical, are "on call" w/ all that goes along with it. They deal with dirty and nasty situations sometimes. They deserve every penny!

Oh I totally understand the OT. I am talking more about the base salary. Glad to hear is it close though.

Pay them! They deserve it! When you have a good one, which I fortunately do, take care of them, they are not easily replaced.

I have had a MS on salary as well. That was also a great idea. He understood the that we could call him anytime. He was available and he was paid fairly.

Hourly versus salary. Everyone has missed the point. Maintenance cost can be controlled. Maintenance could care less about overtime, they can do a job after working hours and make 3 days wages. They want a life and to be in charge after hours.

A few days ago I got a call from a Supervisor that called to tell me he got a 6k raise and it was a total surprise but he was called into the office and told they truly appreciate him and want to make sure he knows he is appreciated and that they all want him to stay and the appreciate his professionalism and wonderful attitude as much as everything else he does. I was honored he though to call me.

WOW!! That is great! They may have realized he was underpaid and maybe afraid he’d walk.

Maintenance teams are seeing rental increases across the Country (with them performing most of the work) and many live on site, but yet their pay structures are not changing. We will lose a lot of our maintenance to the supplier side or self employment of their own trade specialties if things don’t begin to shift.

That is a GREAT point!!! We LOVE them on site and yet they can barely afford the rent. A lot of Fee Managed owners will not honor employee discount if they live at another community. This industry is tough and getting much tougher. We work hard, are smart and the guys are too. Bad apples inside and out should be fired. Keep the good ones and retain the great ones.

We can't do anything on our sites without these maintenance departments. While most hot to work from home, they didn't. They were in the trenches facing folks with covid. They are my true heros. They deserve every penny and then some!!

It’s so amazing that these workers be paid more for all of the work they do!! However, I don’t see the need to downplay the earnings of a manager at all.

There is no downplay at all, not even a little. I am saying that there is a real and genuine change coming and that companies need to get ready for it as some already do in other companies. It is already starting to happen and will continue.
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It is more standard for companies to provide Managers the most on a property and it has been that way for many years. However, that is going to change to either more or equal, (or very close) with more being the current trend. But, my post is not about Managers and I have the utmost respect for them.
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We all know and fully acknowledge Managers work very hard and deal with their own difficulties and challenges of being on site. Fortunately, I have worked with some amazing Managers that have always done their best to get the best techs and supervisors and work very hard to keep them.
Due to the nationwide shortage of techs and Svc Team personnel that will only get more serious over the next few years this is a natural response by the industry. I would really like to see service departments full of qualified skilled techs that enjoy going to work every day without being burned out.
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I appreciate your post and thoughts and sure hope to see you somewhere in the industry.

I've been on the industry for 16 years and I saw it many times where the MS made more than the PM. It has always made sense to me, since there is a good chance they have certifications and simply, more experience. Personally, when I was on-site, I had several Supervisors make more than me. It never bothered me at all, because I recognized their worth. If it is more common right now because of this crazy environment we are in right now, so be it. We need qualified employees.

I agree with paying more 100%.
We’ve taken a close approach to this and to be completely honest, it’s rare to find anyone worth the price. The talent pool is too shallow in my particular market. Our home office says all the time, bring us someone worth the price you’re asking and we can talk. Not a lot of people make it to that level. We just cannot find the qualified talent anymore. Where they went, I have no idea. Perhaps out of the industry or to luxury living?

Grandma's wisdom. "Make everything and everyone around you better and always take care of your people".

Skills are skills and the market will determine their value not the industry.

And that is why such large increases are starting to happen. Much of the skill shortage could have been prevented but that is hindsight. Now the skilled trades cannot be filled, not even close and that is in all of the trades not just a few. So, this trend will continue and companies will ether do without skilled positions and contract everything out or keep up with the changes and develop their teams.

Too bad not all are worth more than that. Leads aee, but not Assts or Techs. Sorry, but I have never seen any maint take a distressed asset and turn it around all by their lonesome. Managers and Leads are the biggest difference makers!!

I’ve already experienced this in the industry, in particular higher end communities with more plant to manage. Those positions are labeled as “Engineers” not maintenance techs or supervisors. There is a distinct difference in skill set and yes they shroud be paid more than the Community Managers.

I am all for better pay for everyone but the manager has to answer for why something isn’t within budget or not completed or complaints about work orders, so if they get more money than manager then maybe they did need to take some of the responsibility that us as managers take care of and keep them from the negatively. Most of the leads that have been employed with the companies I’ve worked for don’t even read the budget provided or care to stay within.

My Maintenance Supervisor s have usually always made more then me as a PM. Salary vs hourly and I believe you should fight to pay your team there worth. Supervisor’s that can play within budget and understand the demand corporate puts on managers for meeting budgets are fantastic. I never understood why supervisors and managers both were not included in making the property budget.

Now you are understanding. Had you rather fix the problem or tell residents it’s not in the budget. Have you ever seen a budget that is truly realistic? Or looked at it and laughed knowing each quarter it was going over. HVAC alone will eat your lunch.

I agree that Supervisors should be included in the budgeting process from start to finish.

I agree. They work in all types of weather conditions, on call and do physical labor.
They please our residents and take care of grounds. They take care of our amenities and the office staff with many things. Groundskeepers are part of Maintenance. Delivering letters, picking up trash, trashing out apartments and basically anything asked. They need to be paid no less than 15.00 per hour. I hear of 10.00 to 11.00 at most. Techs with experience and MS deserve recognition reflected through their paychecks.
This doesn’t have anything to do with Inside staff. They are also underpaid with most companies. This is a LONG overdue conversation. I’ve always gone to bat for my entire team that actually belong on a team.

I 100% believe that Maintenace is underpaid. So is the office staff.
I do believe that the PM and MS should be paid pretty equally as those positions are the fall guys for everything and anything that goes wrong.

We’ve paid our maintenace techs more than managers for 20+ years. I’m a bit surprised if they aren’t paid more. Techs are the most valuable part of an on site operation.

My new Maintenance Supervisor was hired in making more $$ than I do. My boss asked me how I felt about that and I said I cannot be a good property manager without a great maintenance supervisor, let’s pay him…..

The deserve to be paid more. I can hold down my office if I lost my office team. It may take working 14 hours a day I have 540 apts) but when my service team is down to half a team all I can really do is provide lunch and support. I will close out all the service request, place orders, keep thr make ready schedule updated but I can't do what they do daily.

Ok let’s get to the true root. I was a regional maintenance director for a whole state. I had 13 properties I visited on a biweekly basis. I carried a tool bag to every prop, which most regional maintenance directors feel it’s below them to run work orders. They want supers to be afraid. At first the maintenance supervisor would ask what I wanted them to do. I would tell them you are the super and I want you to act accordingly, tell me what you want me to do, show me you can lead. Story short, from then on they would call and ask when can I come back to help!
Now to prop managers, I can’t tell how many times I walked in the front door and was greeted by a leasing agent that had 3 or more potential renters waiting and I asked for manager only to find out manager and assistant in their office on personal phone not helping front line worker.

My personal thoughts are get ride of all property managers and have all front line employees. Reduce regional managers properties to 3 or 4, because they are paid well, that way they have the pulse of each property, let them handle day to day operations. The industry uses computers now! The property managers are quick to state that maintenance is not following computer based operations.

None of my property managers actually had budget meetings with maintenance supervisors.
If you are a property manager living off budget bonuses I would never hire you. Budgets are a fantasy from upper managers and owners who want big money and leave property managers to explain why things are not being done to maintain communities.
If you are on a 500+ unit property that is 10+ years old when was the last time the parking lot was stripped, buildings painted, upgrades in units?
Maintenance needs to make more than office staff.
To prove this have the managers show up after hour to show residents they care. LOL.
Maintenance is a 24/7/365 job.
Managers 8-5 Monday- Friday.
Maintenance is burnt out and have no home life.

It makes sense, it's hard to argue that the maintenance skill set isn't significantly more valuable. Just a few calls to vendors for issues that an in house maintenance team could have handled can get the property financially upside down.

My service manager has always made more money than myself. I'm okay with that, he has certifications that i do not have and works outside in the extreme temperatures. He also gets called out all hours of the day and night whereas I rarely do.

Yes, agreed.  It is happening and candidates know they can negotiate the higher base salary.

Skilled labor has always been vital in the workforce and most positions are generally well paid, like plumbers, electricians, and repairmen. Maintenance techs and supervisors are finally catching up. It has also been difficult to find and keep qualified technical workers since not all of it can be trained. It requires a particular mental aptitude that not everyone has. I have seen many individuals who lacked the critical thinking skills and concepts required to diagnose and make repairs. This is not to say that other managers and office staff are less important but technical work is very specialized.

I am fortunate to work for a company that does not undercut the pay scale as it relates to maintenance.  While I agree that we should closely and continually monitor the living wages of our employees to make sure we are competitive and adequately compensating, I don't think it's a matter of paying one group more than the other (office or maintenance).  It's a matter of paying them appropriately, recognizing their value, and providing a work environment that makes an individual happy to come to work.  The culture created by the on-site leadership at any community, backed by strong benefits and structure of the parent company, along with good compensation on every level all equally play a role in hiring and retaining good employee's.  

Its been along time coming and needed techs should that have a good skill set should be paid more. And companies that have highly skill set better give their best ones a pay raise our they will be leaving.
There are recruiters that are offering good money to come to there company.

Men have unfairly made more than women forever so...It isn't a shock to me that suddenly the males in the industry are making more money. What shocks me is that the answer is "pay males more". The answer should be "pay the office staff and managers more". The industry can afford to pay us what we are worth considering we manage multi-million dollar assets".

     We have 700 residential doors in our portfolio and growing.  Over the last 2 years we have made huge changes in our employee structure.  Part of this change has been additional Maintenance Supervisors, 3 added to be specific, giving us a total of 4.  Each Supervisor over sees approx 175 doors with 4 roving techs.  The Supervisors are in the $30 to $35 per hour range, with techs ranging from $18 to $25 per hour, depending on skill level.  
     We recognized that we had to increase our hourly pay along with discounts on rental costs, 33%, if they were to live onsite.  The company also provides a standard base set of tools for each employee, uniforms and work boots.  We also, have quarterly performance bonuses that average from $500 to $3,000 per employee.
     A maintenance team is a huge driving force on a property and we recognize both our Manager's and Maintenance.  We have both male and female Manager's and Maintenance professionals.  Compensation is about size of the property(s), skill level, years with the company.
 

It's just like being a coach of a professional football or baseball team, you know a few of the players have a larger income than he does. 
If you're the Manager, or any other team member, don't dwell on income or who makes what. You need to be the best you can be and work 
as a team and support each other or you could do more damage to the team and you should leave.  If someone makes more, just know they must come with more experience and they should be ready to jump in and be one of the leaders.