NADA’s annual Dealership Workforce Study (DWS) reveals that US car dealership employees earn almost 25 per cent more than the average American.

The 2016 DWS showed that employee compensation and productivity at new car dealerships increased across all job positions in 2015. The median weekly income for all dealership employees was $1,026, which was nearly 24 percent more than employees in the private sector workforce.

The revelation is the result of a US Bureau of Labor Statistics comparison of dealership salaries and 2015 fourth quarter median weekly earnings of all US employees.

The 2016 DWS also revealed average wage growth of 6.3 percent for individual dealership employees or incumbents who worked in the same position in 2014 and 2015.

Employee turnover in dealerships barely changed from the previous year, with 39.6 percent of the workforce moving on. This compared to 46 percent total turnover in the private sector, as estimated by the Bureau of Labor.
Car sales consultant, the only key position to exceed the national private-sector average, was the highest turnover position at 67 percent annually, a decrease of five points from 2014. Non-luxury sales consultant turnover was 72 percent; luxury was 48 percent. One anomaly worth noting is that female sales consultant turnover was a massive 88 percent.

Millennials made up 60 percent of all dealership new hires and 42 percent of the total dealership workforce. Turnover among millennials was 52 percent.

Women were 18.6 percent of dealership employees and 20 percent of all new hires, with 7.8 percent of women employed in key positions and 89.3 percent in office and admin support.

The 2016 DWS analysed more than 385,000 payroll records from 1,956 new car and truck dealerships. The DWS provides data dealers can use to fine-tune employee compensation and benefits, promote retention and stay ahead of the demographic curve. Participants receive comparative statistics for their own dealerships.