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Pay up or go home

By and |  September 12, 2016 0 Comments

Screen Shot 2016-06-16 at 10.49.50 AMA new labor law goes into effect December 1st. This law will impact 4.2 million American workers. But will workers make more money and have more free time, or find themselves unemployed?

President Barack Obama has upped the ante for middle class workers, particularly those who work overtime. Currently, salaried employees who make $23,660 and under are entitled to time-and-a-half pay. Beginning Dec. 1, the Department of Labor will up that amount to $47,476. That means any executive, administrative or professional employee who makes $47,476 or less annually must be paid time-and-a-half wage for any hours worked over 40.
How this will impact America’s golf courses — and who will be affected — will vary greatly from course to course. A golf course that already pays its assistant superintendent $50,000 a year will see no change with that employee. But a course that pays its assistant-in-training $35,000 a year and works him or her 60 hours a week must ask: Does paying that employee time-and-a-half for 20 hours a week make financial sense?

And an even bigger question: With the industry already facing a dearth of assistant superintendents, is it time to start taking better care of assistant superintendents for the vital work they do?

Equating work to dollars

According to GCSAA’s 2015 Compensation and Benefits report, assistant superintendents make, on average, $41,372 a year. The average salary reported in 2013 was $41,122, meaning assistant salaries increased only $250 in two years.

With the average assistant superintendent salary at $41,372, that puts this position directly in the crosshairs of the new overtime law. Facilities will need to do the math, and either pay up or send the assistants home.

For Alex Stuedemann, director of golf course maintenance at TPC Deere Run in Silvis, Ill., it’s been a major topic of discussion. The new rule will have an impact on both of his assistants.

“This question has been tossed around a lot in the cauldron of business and how the new rule equates to our operation,” Stuedemann says. “Do we toss them up to the $47,476 level, or keep them hourly? When you equate the work to dollars, it’s a tough question. Me myself, I’m still in the middle of the equation.”

Stuedemann says he’s especially nervous because the number of talented turf students coming out of college — along with experienced interns — has dwindled in recent years. He says pay historically has been an issue.

“Ten years ago, I hate to say it, but assistants were a dime a dozen,” Stuedemann says. “I was part of that class. Now that’s not the case. Guys are leaving for vendors or they’re leaving the industry altogether. Maybe this new law will let us have some retention. Finish your job in less hours and have a life, or make more money for the blood, sweat and tears of working 60, 70, 80 hours a week.”

Can’t settle down

If you want to find Rob Podleski on July 4th all you have to do is head over to Farmington Country Club. Independence Day is one of the busiest days at the Charlottesville, Va., club, like it is at most courses around the country.

The 37-year-old Podleski has been an assistant at Farmington for 12 years and has worked Independence Day the last five years. Making that sacrifice to his personal life is what’s best for the club. Still, it doesn’t mean the hard-working assistant wouldn’t want to be elsewhere.

In a typical summer week Podleski works 40 hours to 45 hours, with a half-day on Friday, but it hasn’t been typical at Farmington since a construction project started. His hours are much more sporadic as he manages the crew between the course and the construction, and is now working 50 hours to 60 hours weekly.

“With the construction going on, my day is all over the place. I’m still doing the assistant job as far as running the golf course and the maintenance staff,” Podleski says. “I’m also facilitating the logistics that are going on with the construction as far as fuel, material delivery, sending my staff to help lay sod or irrigation.”

Podleski’s girlfriend of two years, Keri Blain, has been there to support him and his career. But let’s face it, the amount of time and the schedule he works would frustrate any girlfriend. Podleski has aspirations to be a superintendent. He admits that his job has put settling down and starting a family on hold.

“She understands the hours that come along with my position, but she doesn’t really like it some days,” he says. “It’s fair to say that my job has held me back from settling down. Hopefully in the future I will have more time for that.”

At the end of the day Podleski is happy with his career and calls Farmington CC his home. Other, or younger, millennial turf professionals early in their career might not have the same patience and  may look for other career opportunities. Stuedemann says that is exactly the case.

“It’s not a surprise to me that guys are worried about pay, that’s always one of two big concerns, the other being communication,” Stuedemann says. “With this new labor law, pay has been more on the forefront. We always say, ‘You’re getting paid X. Is the passion you have for the job worth it?’

“Today, that’s a 50/50 answer, depending on the person,” he continues. “It’s an eye-opener.”

Single-room apartment living

Stuedemann says that while the TPC network will make a decision as a whole, it’s not just about compliance. It’s about taking care of people.

“My guys have mortgage payments, they have families, their kids need braces,” he says. “You can’t do all that on an assistants’ salary, and that’s not right.”

This is a hot topic at the Metropolitan GCSA meetings, where board member Michael Brunelle, CGCS, Upper Montclair Country Club, Clifton, N.J., also is standing up for assistants. He sees assistants making the same salary but handling more responsibility than he was 10 years ago.

Screen Shot 2016-08-04 at 10.43.40 AM“Just because I worked a thousand hours a week and only took one day off a month in the season when I was an assistant doesn’t mean it should be like that for my guys,” says Brunelle. “There are still those gems who are committed. The tough part is we’ve got to do something to keep those guys in the industry.”

What’s the difference in Brunelle’s mind between today and 10 years ago when he was an assistant? There was a light at the end of the tunnel. Brunelle says that he knew he was going to be an assistant for four to six years before he got his first superintendent job. Now there are fewer superintendent jobs out there and his assistants are looking at 10 to 12 years before they get a chance.

Also, his assistants live rent-free in Upper Montclair’s clubhouse apartments, which helps if there’s a course emergency. It benefits the assistants because they can’t afford the apartments near the course. But if they want to get married? Not many people want to ask that special someone to live in a clubhouse.

“You have to compensate them enough to have a family to keep them in it. You can create that lifer position for that guy or at least make sure he stays at your club until he has an opportunity to make that next move,” Brunelle says. “We have to pay them so much more if they were going to live in our area. (With) the taxes alone they can’t own a home. You could rent a respectable place where you feel safe with a family but that costs $2,000 per month. I think these are all issues that need to be handled sooner rather than later.”

Brunelle acknowledges that raising assistant superintendent salaries is not possible at all municipal, resort or private courses, but in his area there’s money that he wants to get to the assistants.

“The type of club I’m at and the area I am in, there are a ton of private clubs and there’s enough to go around,” Brunelle says. “In an industry where if a superintendent is making $200,000, how is his right-hand man not making $100,000? In every other industry that’s how it works. Why is it not in our industry?”

$80K to stare at a computer

At Cattail Creek Country Club in Glenwood, Md., Superintendent Chris Harriman has three assistants. One has been there for 23 years, the other is in his fourth season and the youngest, a recent Penn State grad, is in his first season and already has accepted a new position and will be leaving in the fall.

He says that some decisions will need to be made, but other decisions won’t be so tough.

“First of all, it’s a shame you have to have someone tell you to do this… these guys are certainly worth $50,000 a year,” he says. Harriman says competition in his area for hard-working young people are fierce, and he’s mostly outgunned.

“It’s hard enough to get golfers to play, let alone get someone to work outside on the course,” he says. “GCSAA is trying to paint this as a white-collar business. It’s not. In the mid-Atlantic, we’re looking to Hispanic workers to help out. Because here in D.C., kids are making $80,000 to stare at a computer all day.”

He says assistants should be able to get their jobs done in 40 hours if there is the right amount of employees on the course, and it has a decent irrigation system and proper organization.

“To a certain point, courses have already been doing more with less for the last 10 years,” he says. “This is just another aspect of that. During the week it won’t make a difference. We’re organized so guys are only here eight, maybe nine hours a day. It’s weekend work that’ll change. But it won’t be a massive change, we’ll just have to work smarter.”

Making peanuts

As Dec. 1 nears, decisions will need to be made at courses across the country. And not just with the maintenance team. This new rule could affect everyone from the assistant pro to the sous chef.

“Right or wrong, you have to ask if you can make up this money in revenue,” Stuedemann says. “There will be courses that have to ask if they can maintain the course with 25 guys instead of 30, or with 10 guys instead of 12.”

“For some guys, they’ll have no issues,” Harriman says. “And for the courses that have their guys making peanuts? …Things are about to get nuts.”

Photos: Golfdom

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About the Author: Seth Jones

Seth Jones, a 18-year veteran of the golf industry media, is Editor-in-Chief of Golfdom magazine and Athletic Turf. A graduate of the University of Kansas School of Journalism and Mass Communications, Jones began working for Golf Course Management in 1999 as an intern. In his professional career he has won numerous awards, including a Turf and Ornamental Communicators Association (TOCA) first place general feature writing award for his profile of World Golf Hall of Famer Greg Norman and a TOCA first place photography award for his work covering the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina. In his career, Jones has accumulated an impressive list of interviews, including such names as George H.W. Bush, Samuel L. Jackson, Lance Armstrong and Charles Barkley. Jones has also done in-depth interviews with such golfing luminaries as Norman, Gary Player, Nick Price and Lorena Ochoa, to name only a few. Jones is a member of both the Golf Writers Association of America and the Turf and Ornamental Communicators Association. Jones can be reached at sjones@northcoastmedia.net.


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