Landscaper wages
report 2016
Based on the results of the APL wages &
staff cost benchmarking survey 2016
April 2016
Published by:
Association of Professional Landscapers (APL)
Horticulture House
19 High Street
Theale
Reading
RG7 5AH
Tel: 0118 930 3132
Fax: 0118 932 3453
Email: [email protected]
© Association of Professional Landscapers 2016
All rights reserved
Notice and Disclaimer
This report is copyright to the Association of Professional Landscapers (APL). The report is
prepared for APL members and customers and may not be (whether in whole or in part) lent,
resold, hired out or otherwise disposed of by way of trade in any form whatsoever to third
parties outside the member’s own business unless it is being used by that third party to
undertake work on behalf of the member’s or customer’s business.
To the extent permitted by law, the APL will not be liable by reason of breach of contract,
negligence or otherwise for any loss or consequential loss (including loss of anticipated
profits, damage to reputation or goodwill, loss of expected future business, damages, costs
or expenses payable to any third party or other indirect losses) occasioned by any person or
entity acting or omitting to act or refraining from acting in reliance on this report or the data
and/or information used to compile the same.
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Contents
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3
4
5
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Introduction
Executive Summary
Sample
Comparative data
Salary benchmarking
Sub-contractor & agency workers
Average pay change
Distribution of pay change
Staff turnover rate
Redundancy and part-time work
Staff costs
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Appendix
A) ASHE comparative data
B) Survey Questions
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21
Tables
Table 1: Average pay for a range of jobs in the landscaping sector
Table 2: Average pay for a range of positions with ASHE comparator where available
Table 3: Average pay (day rates) for sub-contracted and agency staff
Table 4: Numbers of sub-contracted and agency staff used
Table 5: Use of sub-contractors/agency workers from the UK, EU or outside the EU.
Table 6: Average pay including and excluding businesses with pay freeze
Table 7: Staff turnover rate by business size
Table 8: Changes made to staff in 2014 & 2015
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1. Introduction
1.1. This report aims to give you the information you need to set salaries of different roles in
the landscaping sector and benchmark costs for different sized businesses. It can help
you advertise vacancies at appropriate rates and review your cost structure for the next
year. 229 businesses were approached to take part in the survey and a total of 90
businesses completed the survey in full (40% response rate).
1.2. In 2015 economic conditions continued to improve. At the beginning of the year wage
growth exceeded levels of inflation (RPI was 1.1% and wage growth was 2%), both wage
growth and levels of inflation remained stable throughout the year.
1.3. The government announced a plan to increase the national minimum wage to above £9
an hour before the year 2020. This increase in wage from £6.50 will happen in stages
over the next five years with the first increase happening in April 2016 to £7.20 per hour.
The change is only applicable for UK adults aged 25+. The APL is monitoring trends
which may arise from the change in living wage to help members be informed about the
impact on the landscaping sector.
1.4. GFK tracks the climate for consumers to make a ‘major purchase’ such as a car or house
or new garden. Throughout 2015 we see a positive trend in the climate to make a major
purchase, in addition to this GFK reported a shift towards higher levels of consumer
confidence in comparison to previous years.
1.5. The Association of Professional Landscapers (APL) have tracked business confidence
amongst APL businesses throughout 2015, business confidence has been stable with a
quarter of businesses stating ‘7 very positive’ from a scale of 1-7 where 7 is the highest.
Over half of members also reported an increase in the volume and value of enquiries in
comparison to the same time in 2014.
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2. Executive summary
2.1
2.2
2.3
The table below shows the average salary for a range of jobs in garden landscaping as
reported by the survey respondents (number in brackets are sample sizes).
Not all businesses employ the below roles therefore each job title is based on a smaller
sample, because of this reason the analysis could not be split by business size.
A full time equivalent salary has been calculated for sub-contractors and agency staff
assuming an 8 hour day and multiplying by working days in year. The flexible nature of
this type of worker is that they are enagaged as and when they are needed for projects.
Table 1: Average pay for a range of jobs in the landscaping sector
2.4
2.5
2.6
2.7
Job title
APL national
Employed director
£34,218 (51)
ASHE
national
£49,403
Office manager
£25,634 (14)
£29,588
Office assistant/administrator
£16,231 (21)
£16,391
Supervisor
£26,417 (29)
£34,510
Foreman
£24,955 (35)
£34,510
Skilled hard landscaper
£21,673 (52)
£18,066
Skilled soft landscaper
£19,705 (33)
£18,066
Site operative
£17,427 (53)
£16,608
Apprentice
£12,212 (31)
--
Sub-contractor full time equivalent
£32,240 (55)
Agency full time equivalent
£27,820 (11)
61% of respondents used agency or sub-contracted staff. From those that used this type
of worker all used sub-contractors and a fifth used agency workers.
37% of businesses (26) froze pay in 2015.
27% of businesses expect a pay freeze in 2016.
Average staff costs excluding the rise in living wage equated to 37% of businesses
turnover.
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3. Sample
3.1
3.2
3.3
3.4
The data in this report is based on the findings of the 2016 APL wages and cost
benchmarking survey. The survey was primarily conducted online with the option to
complete by post.
The survey ran from 18th January 2016 and closed on the 29th February 2016. All
members that responded before the closing date were offered a free copy of the report.
90 APL businesses took part in the survey, 38% of all APL membership.
Respondents were asked where their business was primarily based; all respondents
answered this question, depicted in the map below:
Figure 1: Sample representation
3
0
15
12
1
8
3.5
51
The sample is good representation of APL membership by business size with the
exception of businesses in band one (turnover of less than £100K) which is under
represented. This is to be expected given that small businesses are likely to employ low
numbers of staff and as such stand to gain limited benefit from benchmarking wage
costs.
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3.6
We would expect the conclusions drawn in this report to be accurate for APL members.
The chart below shows the distribution of respondents by business turnover in
comparison to APL membership.
Figure 2: Sample representation
Distribution of businesses by business turnover
Percentage of Businesses
45%
38%
40%
35%
39%
31%
30%
APL sample
26%
25%
20%
APL membership
18%
17%
15%
9%
10%
8%
7%
4%
5%
3%
0%
0%
less than £100k
£100k-£250k
£250k-£500k
£500k-£1m
£1m-£2.5m
£2.5m-£5m
Business Turnover
4. Comparative Data
4.1
4.2
4.3
The HTA’s survey data is complemented by the Office of National Statistics (ONS) Annual
Survey of Hours and Earnings (ASHE) 2015. This survey shows gross annual pay for
different occupations. The specific dataset used to supplement the HTA data was Table
14 – Occupation.
As job responsibilities in the landscaping industry can vary by business in this report we
have matched job titles to similar occupations by job description which is still useful
comparative data. The full list of ASHE job descriptions and codes can be seen in the
appendix.
Please note where relevant the same ASHE comparator is used more than once and
where there is not an appropriate comparator we have left blank.
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APL Wage setting &
benchmarks
This section presents average salaries for a range of jobs in the landscaping sector. Average
salaries will be compared to data from the Office for National Statistics (ONS) Annual
Survey of Hours and Earnings (ASHE) 2015 where relevant.
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5. Salary benchmarking
5.1
5.2
The following table shows average salaries paid for different job roles within APL
businesses. The minimum and maximum pay for each role by members are included as
a guide to the range of salaries paid. Also presented for comparison is the ASHE national
data.
Variations in the range of salaries could be due to business size; this is noted in the
commentary where relevant. A total of 88 respondents answered this question so when
analysing the data from a small sample indicators should be treated with caution.
Table 2: Average pay for a range of positions with ASHE comparator where
available
Employed director
£34,218 (51)
APL
minimum
£7,944
Office manager
£25,634 (14)
£16,640
£45,000
£29,588
Office assistant/administrator
£16,231 (21)
£7,000
£26,000
£16,391
Supervisor
£26,417 (29)
£12,500
£40,000
£34,510
Foreman
£24,955 (35)
£11,500
£35,000
£34,510
Skilled hard landscaper
£21,673 (52)
£9,500
£36,400
£18,066
Skilled soft landscaper
£19,705 (33)
£7,940
£33,800
£18,066
Site operative
£17,427 (53)
£7,000
£31,200
£16,608
Apprentice
£12,212 (31)
£6,000
£20,440
--
Job title
5.3
5.4
APL national
APL
maximum
£85,000
ASHE
national
£49,403
It is important to consider that not all APL businesses employ for every job asked about
in the survey which is a reason why the sample sizes differ for each role. It’s also worth
noting that some businesses combine the responsibilities of more than one role
therefore the salary would reflect these variations.
A reason for a wide range in minimum and maximum salaries could be down to
business size e.g. larger businesses paying higher salaries, but due to the small sample
size we cannot analyse the data by business turnover.
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5.5
5.6
5.7
5.8
There is a very big difference in the minimum and maximum salary for Employed
Director; the results for this role were widely distributed; however the median salary
figure for Employed Director was £30,000 which is in line with the mean.
Since the last report in 2015 we see a rise in mean salary for Employed Director (+6%),
Supervisor (+8%) and Apprentice (+2%) appear to have risen, however this is not a
statistically significant increase and could be due to random variation in the sample.
Average annual pay for Skilled Hard Landscaper are higher in the South East (£21,334)
than the North (£15,535), however salary benchmarking by region could not be
conducted due to small sample sizes.
Sub-contractor and agency staff are commonly used amongst landscaper businesses
because of the scale and variation of landscaping commissions. The following table
shows benchmark day rates paid by APL members for this type of work.
Table 1: Average pay (day rates) for sub-contracted and agency staff
Average day
rate
Minimum
Maximum
Average
equivalent
FT salary
Sub-contractors
£124
£70
£240
£32,240
Agency staff
£107
£70
£165
£27,820
*Full time equivalent salary has been calculated assuming an 8 hour day and multiplying by working days in year.
5.9
The average full time equivalent salary has been included for comparison. We assume
that the day rate is an 8 hour working day and have multiplied this by the number of
working days in a year (260).
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Types of workers
6. Sub-contractor & Agency Workers
6.1
The below chart shows the split of respondents who use agency/sub contracted staff
and those who don’t. The chart also shows the proportion of respondents that used
each type of workers in 2015 out of those that stated they do use.
Figure 3: Use of sub-contractor and agency workers
Do you use agency or sub-contracted workers?
1 in 5 of those who said yes
employed agency workers in
2015
No
39%
Yes
61%
All who said yes employed subcontracted staff in 2015
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Table 1: Numbers of sub-contracted and agency staff used
2014
Sub-contractors
2015
Total number used Mean (Median)
by
respondents
(N)
185 (55)
3.5 (3)
Agency staff
34 (10)
Total number used Mean (Median)
by
respondents
(N)
222 (55)
4.2 (3)
3.4 (2.5)
41 (11)
3.7 (2)
Note: ‘N’ is the number who provided data.
6.2
Respondents were asked how long on average they used agency and sub-contracted
staff. Of those who indicated that they used this type of resource:



8% indicated that they used them for a day
33% indicated that they used them for two to five days
59% indicated they used for more than five days
6.3
Respondents were asked to indicate the proportion of their contractors and agency
workers that were UK, EU (other than UK) or non-EU citizens. Four respondents that
said they used agency and sub-contractors did not answer this question. The table
below shows two things, how many respondents use these types of workers and the
proportion subcontractor/agency workers used that are from the UK, EU, or other.
Table 5: Use of sub-contractors/agency workers from the UK, EU or outside the EU.
% of respondents* using subcontractors and agency
staff employ workers
from UK, EU or other
The % of UK,EU and non-EU workers
that make up all subcontractor/agency workers
UK citizens
98%
89.1%
EU citizens
24%
8.3%
Non- EU citizens
6%
2.6%
*51 respondents answered the question.
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6.4
Respondents were asked an open ended question about the type of work typically
undertaken by subcontractor/agency workers. In some responses more than one skill
was stated. The summary below describes the typical skills workers were used for and
the percentage of respondents using these types of workers stating this:
Agency workers (based on 17 responses):
Labour
(71%)
landscaping (12%)
n/a
(17%)
Subcontractors (based on 53 responses):
Skilled Hard landscaping (19%)
Labour
(16%)
Electrician
(9%)
Brick-work (8%)
Tree surgeon (8%)
Skilled Soft landscaping (7%)
Carpentry
(6%)
Rendering
(6%)
Gardeners
(5%)
Diggers
(3%)
Drivers
(3%)
Machine operators (2%)
Other
(8%)
6.5
As with previous reports we see that businesses are choosing subcontractors for more
skilled work and agency workers as additional labour when it is required.
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Pay rise 2015 and
beyond
7. Average pay change
7.1
7.2
7.3
7.4
Respondents were asked about pay changes in their businesses during 2015 and
expected pay change for 2016. Not all respondents answered this question; the findings
are based on a sample of 66- 71 responses.
The table below shows average pay rise for the last two years and planned pay change
in 2016. Average pay change has also been calculated excluding businesses freezing
pay.
Average pay rise is in line with previous years pay change.
The National Office of Statistics recorded average pay growth (excluding bonuses) from
May-July 2015 at 2.9% which is in line with the findings of this survey.
Table 6: Average pay including and excluding businesses with pay freeze
Average pay rise including
businesses with pay
freeze
Average pay rise excluding
businesses with pay
freeze
2014
2015
2016 (planned)
2.7%
3.3%
2.6%
4.4%
5.2%
3.9%
*based on a samples of 45-71.
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8. Distribution of pay change
8.1
8.2
8.3
8.4
8.5
8.6
37% of businesses (26) froze pay in 2015. Almost half these businesses expect to
continue the pay freeze in 2016. In addition to this, seven businesses that awarded a pay
rise in 2015 expect to freeze pay in 2016.
27% of businesses expect a pay freeze in 2016.
There doesn’t appear to be any correlation between business size and pay freeze.
63% of businesses (45) awarded a pay rise in 2015. Three businesses awarded a pay rise
of more than 10%.
Out of the businesses that have decided pay for 2016, 68% (38) will award a pay rise.
12% of businesses are still undecided.
The graph below shows the distribution of pay changes amongst businesses in 2015 and
expected pay change in 2016. The proportion of businesses freezing pay is less than in
2015.
Figure 4: Pay change in 2015 and expected pay change in 2016
Pay change in 2015
Distribution of businesses by business turnover
50%
Pay change in 2016
(expected)
Percentage of Businesses
45%
40%
37%
U= undecided
Base= 45-71
35%
30%
27%
25%
20%
17%
17%
15%
10%
4%5%
5%
9%
7%
13%
12%
12%
11%
9%
3%
3%2%
1%
1%2%
2%
4%
3%
0%
0%
1%
2%
3%
4%
5%
6%
7%
8%
9%
10%
>10%
U
Pay change
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Not sure
Staff turnover
9. Staff turnover rate
9.1
9.2
9.3
9.4
9.5
Respondents were asked about levels of staff turnover amongst permanent staff
(excluding agency/sub-contracted workers). Respondents were asked to include all staff
that left whether for retirement, resignation, redundancy or other reasons.
71 respondents completed this section of the survey; eight businesses indicated they
didn’t know at the time of completing the survey.
Overall staff turnover rate in 2015 was 16% (median average 10%), which is higher than
the last report (12% staff turnover rate), though given the small sample sizes the
difference is not statistically significant.
38% of businesses had no permanent staff leave the business (same as in 2014).
Excluding respondents that had no staff leave the business the average staff turnover
rate was 26%.
Below is the staff turnover rate by business turnover, with smaller businesses staff
turnover is slightly higher.
Table 7: Staff turnover rate by business size
Business size
Staff turnover rate 2014 (N)
Staff turnover rate 2015 (N)
Turnover of less than 250K
14% (27)
19% (32)
Turnover of 250K up to 1
million
10% (22)
14% (24)
Turnover of 1 million or more
7% (5)
13% (7)
Total
12% (71)
16% (63)
*based on a samples of 71 and 63
9.6
Overall the proportion of businesses with no staff leaving the business has remained the
same since 2014 but within those that did, turnover rate increased.
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10. Redundancy & short- time working
10.1 Respondents were asked whether they had made employees redundant, put them on
short time working, or changed the number of agency/sub-contractor workers used. 74
respondents answered this question.
10.2 This was a multiple choice question where respondents could tick more than one
answer.
Table 8: Changes made to staff in 2014 & 2015
Changes made to staff work
Put staff on short –time working
Made staff redundant
Reduced the number of agency/ sub-contractor workers
Increased the number of agency/sub contracted workers
None of the above
2014
(57)
2015
(74)
7%
7%
7%
3%
11%
5%
18%
24%
66%
64%
10.3 Fewer businesses are making staff redundant than in 2014 and 2013 (where one in ten
businesses indicated they made staff redundant).
10.4 The proportion of businesses that reduced the number of agency/subcontractor
workers has halved, and we see more businesses increasing these types of workers
which could be down to the improving state of trade.
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Staff costs
11. Staff costs
11.1 Respondents were asked what their staff cost was as a percentage of turnover in 2015
excluding the rise in wage bill.
11.2 69 businesses responded to the question but from this sample 13 businesses stated
they didn’t know at the time of completing the survey.
11.3 On average staff costs equated to 37% of business turnover. In the last report this figure
was 35%.
11.4 Average cost as a proportion of turnover appears the same across businesses
regardless of business size.
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Appendix
a) ASHE (Annual Survey of Hours & Earnings) comparative data
The table below shows ONS data used as a comparison for average annual salaries. Visit the
ONS website ASHE Table 16- Occupation for full list of occupations.
HTA Job title
ASHE Job title
ASHE Description of ASHE job title
Proprietor /owner/
partner
-
No relevant code specific to landscape industry
Employed director
1121
Production managers and directors in manufacturing
Office manager
4161: office managers
Office managers plan, organise and co-ordinate the activities and
resources of offices within commercial, industrial and other
non-governmental organisations and public agencies.
Office assistant/
administrat
or
4159: other
administrative
occupations
Job holders in this unit group are responsible for recording, filing
and disseminating information for a business, organisation
or individual not elsewhere classified in MINOR GROUP 415
Supervisor
5330: construction
and building
trades
supervisors
Although not directly related to landscape gardening, the task
description fits well to that of a supervisor on a landscaping
project.
Tasks required by this job include:
directly supervises and coordinates the activities of construction
and building workers and/or subcontractors establishes and
monitors work schedules to meet productivity requirements
liaises with managers and contractors to resolve operational
problems determines or recommends staffing and other
needs to meet productivity requirements. Reports as
required to managerial staff on work-related matters.
Foreman
5330: construction
and building
trades
supervisors
Note: this is the same code as used for Supervisor, with the same
caveat that it is predominately related to construction sites.
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Skilled Hard
Landscaper
5113: gardeners and
landscape
gardeners
The ASHE codes do not differentiate between hard and soft
landscaping and the work description for this code is as
follows:
levels ground and installs drainage system as required prepares
soil and plants and transplants, prunes, weeds and
otherwise tends plant life protects plants from pests and
diseases cuts and lays turf using hand and machine tools
and repairs damaged turf prepares or interprets garden
design plans moves soil to alter surface contour of land
using mechanical equipment and constructs paths,
rockeries, ponds and other features
Performs general garden maintenance.
Skilled Soft
Landscaper
Site Operative
9119: fishing and other
elementary
agriculture
occupations
n.e.c.
The description for this code indicates that it includes people
working labourers in the landscaper industry.
Apprentice
-
No relevant code for apprentices in the landscape industry
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b) Survey Questions
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