With construction spending continuing to rise toward pre-recession peaks and worker shortages growing for both open shop and union contractors, compensation of craft trades has seen a significant bump—the largest in nearly three decades for some firms.
密歇根州开放式薪酬研究公司人事行政服务公司（PAS）总裁杰夫·罗宾逊（Jeff Robinson）说：“现在是成为工艺人的好时机。”
“For workers, this is a seller’s market, and they can be expected to hold out for higher wages,” says John Finch, president of PBG Builders, a nonunion Nashville area building contractor. “If I don’t pay them, my competition will.” Adds the CFO of a South Carolina electrical contractor: “Quite simply, we don’t see an end in sight.”
在2015年的工资和福利调查中，PAS报告说，自2014年中期以来，美国平均基本工资的惊人6.4％增长，这是自1986年以来的最高百分比增长。相比之下，它指出，2014年的年增长率为3.9％，2.7％的增长率为2.7％。2013年，2012年为1.2％。
The rise in craft compensation coincides with increased construction spending in the U.S., which posted a 13.7% year-over-year gain in August, according to U.S. Census Bureau data. Residential construction put in place in August was up 16.4% year over year, says Ken Simonson, Associated General Contractors of America’s chief economist.
With construction activity on the rise, unemployment is dropping sharply. The Census Bureau said the rate for construction workers fell to 5.5% in September, the lowest for the month since 2001.
Also last month, AGC added that, in its latest worker shortage story, 86% of contractors report trouble filling available craft positions—up from 81% in 2013. The survey cited several contributing factors, including an aging workforce and a reduced pool of available construction labor since recession layoffs.
Carpenters were toughest to find, with 73% of firms reporting difficulties, while salaried professionals also were in short supply, noted by 55% of respondents for project managers and 43% for estimators.
Robert V. Barnes, CEO of Dee Brown Inc., a large non-union commercial stone and masonry installer in Dallas, has seen the worker need fuel wage inflation of about 20% over the past 18 months. “It is a simple supply and demand equation,” he says. Barnes adds that as owners and regulators get tougher on immigration verification rules, “the greater the shortage will become and in turn the higher the wages of the available workforce will go.”
科罗拉多州承包商Gallegos Corp.的首席业务发展官David Little指出：“对于那些追逐薪水的人，我们已经看到人们每小时再增加50美分的篱笆。”他补充说：“随着行业的出埃及记，良好的人要求最高利率。”
New York's Changing Market
纽约市的多单元住宅的繁荣construction market has broadened competition in traditional union areas to more open shop firms. Some studies show that sector is at least 50% non-union. “Every major developer is doing open shop,” says Lance Franklin, chief operating officer of Manhattan-based Triton Construction, which claims $1 billion in area consruction backlog. “We have hired union trades and will continue to when the economics make sense,” he says.
诺农工厂承包商哈德逊 - 梅里安（Hudson-Meridian）的首席执行官威廉·科特（William Cote）表示，他的分包商指出，劳动力成本升级为10％至15％，在HVAC，机械和电气交易中特别短缺。该公司在布鲁克林和曼哈顿大型项目的收获也助长了项目经新利18备用网址理和总监的短缺。他说：“现在猎头是唯一赚钱的人，”他补充说，他已经通过了一些出价，因为“我们很伸展。”
该市联合大楼交易雇主协会的首席执行官Lou Coletti说：“开放式商店公司不能像有组织的劳动力那样快速有效地建造，但他们正在缩小差距。”他指出，工会工人的不足，尽管他们“有能力”。根据科莱蒂（Coletti）的说法，大多数主要的贸易协定，例如水管工，电工和泡菜，直到2016年中期才会进行谈判，尽管到目前为止，平均有2％至3％的平均增加。
But tension this year between the carpenters’ union and an employer group, The Cement League, is not a hopeful sign. The union, whose agreement expired in June, struck as many as 30 jobsites in the city for two days. These included some with no-strike clauses under a project labor agreement, such as the mammoth Hudson Yards development in Manhattan. The workers returned to work under a court order, but have yet to reach agreement with employers, one industry official says. The two sides “are pretty far apart,” he says, also claiming that the discord has prompted some construction management firms “to disengage” from contracts with the union.
A union spokeswoman did not respond to repeated requests for comment.
Even so, the building trades’ clout in New York City has made them central to the future of the city’s 421-a tax abatement program for developers—a key residential building catalyst that includes affordable housing incentives.
Whether and how the program survives beyond a short-term extension through December now hinges on talks between city building trades chief Gary LaBarbera and the Real Estate Board of New York over union wage-rate guarantees on projects. A spokesman for LaBarbera declined comment, but published reports say 421-a could end if there is no deal by Jan. 15.
