{"id":9868,"date":"2022-06-09T18:57:00","date_gmt":"2022-06-10T01:57:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/essential.construction\/news\/nebraska-contractor-hands-out-2000-inflation-bonuses\/"},"modified":"2022-06-09T18:57:00","modified_gmt":"2022-06-10T01:57:00","slug":"nebraska-contractor-hands-out-2000-inflation-bonuses","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/essential.construction\/news\/nebraska-contractor-hands-out-2000-inflation-bonuses\/","title":{"rendered":"Nebraska contractor hands out $2,000 inflation bonuses"},"content":{"rendered":"

Record-breaking inflation and a war for talent rage on. The economy pressures builders to keep wages high, while they must compete with other companies and industries stealing workers. Firms face pressure from workers<\/a> to increase wages to compete and compensate for inflation.<\/p>\n

Nearly half of employers don\u2019t take inflation into budgeting for salaries, Forbes reported<\/a>. Less than a quarter of U.S. companies have made changes to pay due to inflation, but 42% of companies said workers had asked them for help with rising costs.<\/p>\n

Nevertheless, the transitory nature of inflation poses a tough problem for employers: Offering cost-of-living raises means pay increases become permanent, even if inflation recedes.<\/p>\n

In Omaha, Nebraska, Chris Hawkins did the math. The CEO and president of Hawkins Construction and fourth-generation leader of the family business \u2014 which largely performs heavy civil construction and road building \u2014 discovered that, with usual raises, his hourly tradesworker employees would come up about 3% short of competing with inflation. The annual rate of inflation reached 8.3% in April.<\/p>\n

With that in mind, Hawkins said, he dipped into company profits, and each of the contractor\u2019s roughly 340 hourly workers will receive two $1,000 payments to help compete with rising costs of necessities. The first check arrived in April, and workers will receive the second in August.<\/p>\n

Nate Harper, a fabricator who has worked for Hawkins for 17 years, said the welcome windfall surprised and excited him and his colleagues.<\/p>\n

\u201cConstruction as a whole kind of tends to be a kind of week-to-week paycheck for a lot of families,\u201d Harper said.\u00a0<\/p>\n

While the check can help with higher prices for gas and groceries, it could also open the door for workers to enjoy summer travel.<\/p>\n

\u201c[Before the check] We didn\u2019t really know if vacation was going to work for our family,\u201d Harper added.<\/p>\n

Hawkins said he found the decision to offer those bonuses easy.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s really difficult to overpay for talent,\u201d Hawkins told Construction Dive. \u201cYou can spend a lot on talent and not regret it.\u201d<\/p>\n

At the same time, he said, the checks don\u2019t just come with no strings attached. He communicated to his team that businesses face inflation too, and that it relies on them.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cBe focused, be a little more efficient,\u201d Hawkins said he told his employees. \u201cTake five minutes to unravel your extension cord instead of 10. You can help us stay cost competitive.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

Harper said he hoped others in the industry will see the value in boosting workers\u2019 pay during these trying times.<\/p>\n

\u201cEverybody knows the problem there, but figuring out how to help the individuals who are carrying you, that\u2019s something a lot of companies could learn from,\u201d Harper said.<\/p>\n

Construction Dive wants to hear from readers about inflation\u2019s impact on their businesses and employees. Please consider filling out this survey below and have your voice be heard.<\/p>\n

This item was originally posted here: Read More<\/a><\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Record-breaking inflation and a war for talent rage on. The economy pressures builders to keep wages high, while they must … Read more<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":0,"featured_media":9869,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1066,457],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-9868","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-all-posts","category-construction-dive","generate-columns","tablet-grid-50","mobile-grid-100","grid-parent","grid-33"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/essential.construction\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9868","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/essential.construction\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/essential.construction\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/essential.construction\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=9868"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/essential.construction\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9868\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/essential.construction\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/9869"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/essential.construction\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=9868"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/essential.construction\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=9868"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/essential.construction\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=9868"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}