What Manufacturing Workers Want

ResourceMFG recently began conducting a Manufacturing Employee Opinion Survey which will be conducted annually. Of the 2,500 people from the manufacturing industry surveyed, one thing was apparent. The number one subject of importance to the hourly manufacturing employee was pay rate. While this is not a surprise, the reasons for which pay rate is a number one concern to those in this sector are not necessarily intuitive.

For starters, manufacturing employees have either “entry level skills” or a specialized skill set (machine setup/operators or electro-mechanical assemblers). The pay range in these areas can be anywhere from $10-$15 per hour. This being so, it is not uncommon for many in the manufacturing industry to live paycheck to paycheck. Additionally, employees in this field often have dependents, and when you compound that with the rising cost of living, it is no surprise that pay rate is an important issue to those working in manufacturing.

Our advice to manufacturing employers: set the wage rate as fairly and as competitively as possible from the start.

To read the entire article, please visit www.industryweek.com