I hope everyone had a great Labor Day weekend! It's been a while since I have provided a report in consecutive months, but there is a lot to talk about, so I wanted to send some information to all of you.  In order, I want to discuss:

1. The labor market (again)

2. New proposal by Department of Labor regarding overtime

3. Compensation profiles (again)

The Labor Market

I shared some information in my December, 2022 report that showed Assistant Professional jobs were getting an average of 4 applications. However, it seemed to me that those numbers have been improving recently, so I looked the numbers from December, 2022- present and found some big jumps in the average number of applicants (see below). Last month I mentioned that we were both attracting more new Associates to the PGA through our recruiting efforts AND retaining more members. The data below seems to be evidence that all of those efforts are paying off in a meaningful way.

I have highlighted some of the changes below in green and yellow, and with the exception of jobs with a total compensation of $40,000 - $49,999, all were higher. I'd love to understand the reason behind the one outlier, but I'll have to just watch it long term to see if it reverses it's trend.

I wanted to dig into the data even more to see if the most recent trend was even better, so I looked at the 20 Assistant Professional jobs in the Carolinas that were accepting resumes as of 8.31.23. That data was even better (and comes with a map)!

• 20 jobs

• 171 total applicants 

• An average of 8.55 applicants per job, which is much higher than the roughly 6 average applicants for the 12/22 - 9/23 time period. 

• With that information, I plotted where each of the applicants lives (some not shown on the map below, as they were international applicants). As you can see, there is great interest in relocating to the Carolinas for Assistant Professional positions, especially from cold weather areas in the midwest and northeast. As winter hits in the north, I see a great opportunity to bring talented Assistants to the Carolinas for the 2024 season.

Department of Labor Proposal (and other proposals mentioned previously)

• Late last Wednesday afternoon, the Department of Labor proposed new a law that would require overtime to be paid to anyone making a salary of less than $55,000. You may remember a similar debate in 2018 - 2019, which actually succeeded in raising the minimum salary requirement for an excepmt employee from $23,660 to $35,568. The new proposal would raise that salary floor dramatically, and is currently in a 60 day comment period before anything can happen. I'll keep everyone updated, but you should really be watching this as you work on 2024 budgets.

• I've talked about this one for about a year, as it's been tied up in courts for a long time. The Department of Labor issued a new proposed rule addressing the distinction between employees and independent contractors (IC) under the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA). However, it finally appears they are getting closer to a resolution. From this article we learn that "In the DOL’s filed Status Report on June 9, 2023, the DOL cited that it continues to review the more than 54,000 comments it received on the proposed rule. The DOL requested to postpone proceedings for 120 days in order to complete its rulemaking processes. This would signal that the DOL anticipates that the final independent contractor rule to be released in October 2023 since the DOL noted it did not need a 180-day postponement". As mentioned earlier, this will impact any facility who uses independent contractors. 

Compensation Profiles

You will notice the number of PGA Compensation Profiles below is in RED, and eagle eyed Board Members will notice that the number is significantly lower than last month. It's a long story, but something was happening in our system that was causing  an "update" to compensation profiles when Members weren't actually updating them (sigh). We noticed the issue and it was fixed on August 31...however, this means that we have not yet hit our goal for Compensation Profile's created or updated in 2023. 

We need to have 994 (an oddly specific number) Members / Associates create or update their compensation in PGA.org by October 31, 2023 in order to receive $19,500 in additional ADP funding. Thank you to everyone who made calls, sent emails, simply got someone to complete their profile so far, and let's keep up the efforts. This is a significant amount of money, and I will continue to update this group as to our status. You can still find links to lists of people who have not ever completed or have not updated their compensation profile in 2023 in the "Important Data" section below. As you will see, there are still almost 550 who simply have not updated their data in 2023 and over 470 people who have not ever provided their information.

Final Thoughts

It was great attending a few events recently, including the Assistants Championship, Senior & Ladies Championships, and an education event in Myrtle Beach. I'll see many of you in Charleston for the Pro-Official, where the PGA Execusearch team will be a sponsor! After that we start the Fall Chapter meetings, so I am sure I will see everyone in the next few months. 

As always, I appreciate the opportunity to work with all of you. Please let me know if you have any questions, and I hope to see all of you soon.

Respectfully submitted, 

Mike Mueller

All Active Positions

June 2023 Career Services Report Link

July 2023 Career Services Report Link

August 2023 Career Services Report Link

PGA Compensation Profile - Carolinas Section Participation

For a list of the active PGA Members and Associates who have never provided their compensation information, CLICK HERE.

For a list of the active PGA Members and Associates who have not updated their information in 2023, CLICK HERE.

Job Preferences - Carolinas Section Participation