Results from the American Boat Builders & Repairers Association (ABBRA) 2013 Compensation and Benefits Survey are now available. Survey data was collected from ABBRA members nationwide, along with local marine trade associations' members, and additional participants from the marina and boatyard industry. The report entitled the ABBRA Compensation and Benefits Benchmark Study serves as a valuable resource for employers in the boatyard, marine service, and repair sectors to gauge rates, salaries, and benefits in the current employment market. It also ensures that employees and independent contractors are obtaining the correct compensation for their work.

Gordon Connell, ABBRA's Executive Director said, "Our goals this year were to conduct a more robust survey increasing the response rate over previous years, and we were able to achieve both of those goals." He noted, "What we see in the survey results is that wages in 2012 recorded minimal increases, or in some business size segments no increases compared to the prior year. Additionally, it was revealing in our greater effort to compile and analyze the trends and common practices in health benefits, retirement benefits and vacation policies that there is great variation across the board, but particularly with the smaller boatyards."

The survey results are segmented by the size of the business based on their annual revenue for boatyard services. The results provide information for a broad array of job types and those jobs identified as the most common in today's boatyards. Data on hourly wages, average vacation time, health benefits, and retirement plans is also in the results. The survey was professionally conducted by Rhode Island based Survey Advantage on behalf of ABBRA and all data is analyzed and presented in aggregate.

The Compensation and Benefits Benchmark Study is available at no cost to businesses that provided data for this year's survey. The survey is available for purchase at $85 for ABBRA members and $150 for non-members. For more information please call 954-654-7821 or visit www.abbra.org.