Employees at dealerships in Canada averaged almost 50 per cent more money per week in 2021 than the national average for all Canadian workers, based on a Canadian Automobile Dealers Association Industry Report that is a follow-up to its first-ever National Workforce Study revealed to its members earlier this year.
Approximately 420 of CADA’s 3,200-plus members participated in the Workforce Study, which CADA President Tim Reuss told Canadian auto dealer is a “good sample size” for a first-time initiative. The report includes key findings and statistics based on a full analysis of 40,000 payroll records submitted by the dealers. ESi-Q prepared the report and managed the National Workforce Study. NCM Associates sponsored the project.
According to StatsCan, the average weekly earnings (including overtime) for all Canadian employees in 2021 was $1,131, a year-over-year increase of three per cent. The Workforce Study average weekly earnings (including overtime) across all dealership positions was 49 per cent higher at $1,688. Moreover, 62 per cent of all employees in the Workforce Study earned more than the 2021 Canadian average weekly earnings.
“It provides all the provincial associations and us valuable data that we can use in our advocacy work with politicians representing the importance of our sector, but also the public in general and how attractive it is to actually work in our sector,” said Reuss. “There’s some data on demographics and things that very nicely counters some of the stereotypes sometimes about auto dealerships.
“This report will be invaluable for that as well, be it showcasing our industry versus other industries, there’s various uses of this also on the provincial level.”
The retail automotive findings dealerships were classified into four levels of information and comparisons: all dealerships nationally; luxury and non-luxury dealerships; higher volume and lower volume dealerships based on units sold, and urban and rural dealerships.
The salaries of General Manager/Operator, Sales Manager, F&I Manager, Service Manager, Parts Manager, Sales Consultant, Service Advisor/Writer, Service Technician and Parts Consultant were all indicated in a chart. It ranged from a national average of $280,348 for GMs to $54,503 for the Parts Consultant. The national median salary for all the groups in the study is $70,290 per year.
“Those dealers that did not participate in the survey, at least now they have national comparison data,” said Reuss. “Hopefully, next time around when we do the survey there’s going to be a higher number of participants.”
“As an organization founded on the principle of providing the industry with Benchmarks and performance metrics, NCM was pleased to partner with CADA on the Workforce Study,” said Paul Faletti, NCM’s President and CEO. “The findings once again demonstrate the attractiveness of pursuing a career in the automotive industry with above market compensation potential.”
