QSs and PMs see salaries soar to record levels north of the border

Project managers and senior QSs in Scotland are being paid better than ever before. New research has found that they have seen the biggest salary increases of all the country's construction industry professions in the past three years.

The findings, from construction recruitment firm Contract Scotland, show that project managers have done particularly well. Their average salary was £32,000 in 2002 and has now leapt to £37,000-£41,000, a rise well above inflation.

Senior QSs have grabbed themselves a comparable extra chunk of money. Their average pay packet has gone up from £31,000 a year in 2002 to £33,000-£36,500 in 2006. The figures were less encouraging for QSs on the lower rungs of the career ladder. Assistant QSs earned £17,000 in 2002 but in 2006 they are pocketing an average of between less - £16,000 - or slightly more - £19,000.

The average QS earned £27,000 three years ago and could now be on the same or up to £3,000 more. Contract Scotland's managing director Colin Woodward said the salary hikes were due to strong demand for QSs and PMs in Scotland, which was being driven by healthy levels of construction work in all sectors.

He said extra pressure in the market was stemming from contractors, who were recruiting graduate level QSs more than before. "Traditionally a QSing graduate goes straight into a PQS firm, where they get better training but are paid less. After five years they move to a contractor, where they are paid more and have better prospects." Instead, Woodward said, contractors were now competing directly with QS firms for graduates. Compounding this is a slump in the numbers of non-cognates taking QSs courses, said Woodward. He said that initiatives currently underway to attract more people into the industry would ease the pressure on junior levels of QSs and PMs in two to three years, so salaries at the junior level were unlikely to increase rapidly. However, at the senior level expertise was likely to remain in short supply and salaries would reflect this.

PM and senior QS salaries compared favourably to many of the other professions in the survey. For example the average chartered engineer wage was £32,000 in 2002 and is now £34,000-£37,000.