Five Star Contractor C.C. Owen in Jonesboro, Ga. “In fact, the word ‘installer’ irritates me because it asso- ciates a tile setter with a less-skilled trade of simply installing products rather than having to perform precision work with less forgiving materials like tile and stone…If all I had to offer was a median of $30k after achieving tile setter status I might as well quit trying to find long-term stable employees.” Skill makes a difference David did make the point that skilled “blue collar” positions also can bring in more robust salaries, but she did not identify tile setters as part of that elite group. “People tend to associate white- collar or office jobs with higher salaries compared to blue-collar or manual labor, but the rankings show that this is not necessarily the case,” she said. “Working with elevators or boilers requires physi- cal work, but these are among the highest paid jobs in the industry.” David pointed out, “The highest- paying occupations often require specialized apprenticeships, licenses or certifications that dem- onstrate an understanding of the trade and command a premium in the market, such as a grounding in mechanics for elevator techni- cians, circuitry for electricians, or water systems for boilermakers. Of course, licensing can also serve as a means for controlling the number of people practicing and by reduc- ing the supply of those tradesmen, increase their wages. “Towards the bottom of the list are trades that generally have lower barriers to entry,” she said, add- ing fuel to the fire. “Floor install- ers, construction laborers, drywall installers, painters and roofers are listed on the Bureau of Labor Statistics as having ‘no formal education credentials’ required, while professions with average pay including pipelayers, sheet metal workers, glaziers, insulation workers, and carpenters typically require ‘a high school diploma or equivalent.’” Woody Sanders, founder of D.W. Sanders Tile & Stone Contracting in Marietta, Ga., a fellow NTCA Five Star Contractor, took excep- tion to the way tile contractors were characterized, saying, “We should highlight and make the case for what the profes- sional ‘TILE’ con- tractors are paying and doing. I would agree with Rod, we have to detach our trade from carpet, vinyl, LVT. I understand that some of our members are in the floor covering business, but that is nei- ther our charter nor our trade. Our BUSINESS TIP ––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––– Rod Owen Woody Sanders 34 TileLetter | June 2018