Occupational Compensation

Wages in Forestry
and Logging

BY ELIZABETH DIETZ

The Occupational Compensation Surveys (OCS) provide
cross-industry occupational wage data on about 50 occupa-
tions. But they also collect data on wages for occupations
specific to forestry and logging industries. How did this
apparent anomaly come about? In the mid-1980's, the Fed-
eral Government asked private contractors to bid on refor-
estation work for the U.S. Forest Service and the Depart-
ment of the Interior. The Service Contract Act (SCA) states
that all private establishments providing services to the
Federal Government must pay their employees prevailing
locality wages and related benefits.' The Employment Stan-
dards Administration (ESA), which administers the SCA,
asked the Bureau of Labor Statistics to conduct surveys to
gauge wages and benefits in these industries.

Average wages

In response to the ESA request, forestry and logging wage
surveys were conducted for Washington, Oregon, Idaho, and
Montana in the mid-1980s, followed by surveys in Arkan-
sas and Mississippi in the early 1990s. These surveys have
continued on a biannual basis. All wage information re-
lates to non-supervisory production workers only. Because
the Service Contract Act applies only to non-exempt work-
ers covered by the overtime provisions of the Fair Labor
Standards Act, the jobs surveyed were primarily manual
labor occupations.

The most recent BLS forestry and logging data are from
the northwestern States of Montana (May 1994), Idaho (July
1994), Oregon (March 1994), and Washington (July 1994).
These surveys covered forestry or logging operations em-
ploying 10 workers or more? (industries 08 and 2411, re-
spectively, as defined in the 1987 edition of the Standard
Industrial Classification Manual). Christmas tree farms,
contractors engaged in estimating or trucking timber but
who perform no cutting operations, and sawmills were ex-

Elizabeth Dietz is an economist in the Division of Compensation Data
Analysis and Planning, Bureau of Labor Statistics. Telephone (202) 606-
6287. The author would like to thank Rod Sallee of the U.S. Forest Service
and Neil Ward of the American Pulpwood Association for their helpful com-
ments and insight into the forestry and logging industries.

51 Compensation and Working Conditions Spring 1997

cluded for the surveys. As with the Arkansas and Missis-
sippi surveys, all wage information relates to non-supervi-
sory production workers only. Table 1 summarizes the data
from the States surveyed in 1993 and 1994.

Pay rates ranged widely among occupations. Skilled
workers such as loader and skidder operators, choker set-
ters, and fallers/buckers operating heavy equipment gener-
ally earned more than workers in jobs requiring less skill,
such as tree planters, slash pilers/burners, and general for-
estry laborers.

Any forestry or logging job that requires a worker to be
in the forest carries some risk with it, and higher pay may
compensate for the amount of risk involved. For example,
in Idaho fallers and buckers, who use chain saws and me-
chanical felling equipment to cut down trees, earned an
average of $19.90 per hour, whereas general forestry labor-
ers, who sow seeds and thin vegetation around seedlings,
earned an average of $9.04. Forestry technicians, who per-
form work requiring more skill than, for example, general
forestry laborers, but who encounter less risk on the job
than fallers and buckers, earned in the mid-range of aver-
age hourly rates, from $9.98 in Mississippi to $13.69 in
Oregon.

Pay rates also ranged widely by State and region. Heavy
equipment operators earned from $13 to almost $16 per
hour in the Northwest, yet averaged only $8.59 per hour in
Mississippi. Forestry technicians earned from $10.27 per
hour in Idaho to $13.69 in Oregon, but earned only $9.98
per hour in Mississippi. And tree planters earned around
$11 per hour in Oregon, Washington, and Idaho, while earn-
ing only $8.16 and $7.53 per hour, in Arkansas and Mis-
sissippi, respectively.

Industry background

Logging has been a way of life in America since the
time of the earliest European settlers. Timber was harvested
as needed with little regard for future growth. By the be-
ginning of the 20th century, vast areas of forest had been
cut, and at this time professional foresters trained in Eu-
Tope began practicing forest management and restoration



Tabie 1. Hourly wage rates for forestry occupations by State, 1993 and 1994

Occupation Oregon Montana Idaho Arkansas Mississippi

(1994) (1994) (1994) (1994) (1994) (1993)

$11.21 $12.28 —_— _ _ _

11.39 12.53 $14.52 $15.98 _ _

18.42 17.78 19.57 19.90 _ _

B14 _ _ _ _ _

13.02 14.79 14.20 15.83 _ $8.59

_ _ — —_ =_— 9.00

13.73 15.20 14.53 14.64 _ _

12.18 15.02 14.31 15.84 _ _

13,69 11.01 — 10.27 $11.34 9.98

10.26 12.47 14.90 11.84 _ _

11.83 12.87 _ _ _ _

10.93 12.39 14.84 11.89 _ od

793 _ 7.63 9.04 _ _

6.57 _ _ aed _ _

10.55 10.93 _ 11.03 8.16 753

Tree planters (mechanical) .. _— — _ _ _ 5.29

techniques in the United States.?

Today forestry and logging are done in tandem; forest-
ers assess the best areas for loggers to cut based on long-
range economic and environmental considerations and re-
store the forests that have been cut. Although the work of
foresters and loggers complement one another, there are
distinct occupational differences between the two industries.

Forestry workers help develop, maintain, and protect
forests by planting tree seedlings, fighting insects and dis-
eases that attack trees, cutting brush and diseased trees,
gathering data of various land tracks for size, content, and
condition of trees, and using methods to control soil ero-
sion. Foresters who work for private industry gain permis-
sion to inventory timber from private landowners, assess
the value of the timber on each parcel of land, negotiate the
purchase of the timber, subcontract to logging firms to cut
the timber, aid in road layout, and make sure logging op-
erations conform with landowners’ specifications as well
as Federal, State, and local environmental regulations.
Foresters who work for Federal and State governments
manage public parks and forests as well as consult with
private landowners to protect private forest lands.‘ They
also may maintain camp trails, roads, and campgrounds.
Forestry workers may be college-educated professionals
who gather and analyze data and manage forestry opera-
tions to conform to environmental regulations, or they may
be less skilled and perform more labor-intensive work such
as marking trees, cutting brush, or planting trees under a
design laid out by a professional forester.

Logging is carried out by a variety of workers. Loggers
cut down trees with chain saws or other mechanical cutting
equipment, trim tree tops and branches, and cut logs into
specified lengths. Loggers also operate heavy machinery
to transport logs from cutting to loading sites. The nature

of the work varies by the terrain. In mountainous areas,
logs may be transported by cable systems or helicopters from
steep-grade cutting areas to lower-grade loading sites. In
flat terrain, logs are skidded along the ground to loading
sites. The difference in the nature of the logging operation
means that the occupational mix of the work crews is also
different. Over recent years, logging has become more de-
pendent on machinery, but the work is nevertheless highly
labor-intensive. Most of the training required for logging
is provided on the job.

There are also differences between the organization of
the forestry and logging industries. The Bureau of Labor
Statistics Occupational Outlook Handbook reported that
forestry and logging workers held about 124,000 jobs in
1994, Of these, there were 42,000 forest and conservation
workers. Eight thousand were employed by the U.S. De-
partment of Agriculture’s Forest Service; 8,500 worked for
State governments; and 5,800 worked for local governments.
The remaining 20,000 foresters work for companies that
operate timber tracts, tree farms, and nurseries.* Accord-
ing to the Society of American Foresters’ membership sta-
tistics, about 7 percent of their 18,000 members are em-
ployed by colleges or universities, 14 percent by the Federal
Government, 11 percent by State and local governments,
and 20 percent by private industry. Eleven percent are pri-
vate consultants, 14 percent are students, and 14 percent,
retired. The balance of the Society’s membership are self-
employed (other than consultants), work for a foreign gov-
emment, are unemployed, belong to another association,
or did not indicate an employer.

There are only about 50 large U.S. companies which
buy pulpwood to make into paper products, and there are
many small sawmill operators who buy logs to make into
building materials. These firms contract out the services of

Compensation and Working Conditions Spring 1997 52

rn ol


some 37,000 small logging contractors,* who may employ
anywhere from 1 to 20 employees. A typical crew consists
of four to six workers. The overwhelming majority of log-
ging is carried out by these small, independent contractors,
which are, for the most part, nonunionized.’ Of the 124,000
forestry and logging workers who held jobs in 1994, 82,000
were logging workers. Of these, 29,000 were fallers and
buckers (see glossary appendix), 20,000 were logging trac-
tor operators, 16,000 were log handling equipment opera-
tors, and 17,000 worked in all other timber cutting and
telated logging occupations. One of every 4 logging work-
ers is self-employed. Although logging operations are found
in most States, Washington and Oregon account for about
20 percent of all loggers. *

Forestry can be seasonal work depending on what part
of the country is being forested. In southern regions, for-
estry can be performed year-round, but in northern areas,
labor-intensive operations such as tree planting and thin-
ning are put “on-hold” for the winter months, However,

forestry occupations such as planning and office work con-
tinue year-round in all regions. Logging, on the other hand,
is performed during all seasons and curtailed only by the
most severe weather. Crews may be employed year-round,
although seasonal demand varies slightly by region and
employment is generally highest in the summer and lowest
in the winter.

Forestry and logging work continually changes location
during planting, thinning, and logging operations. The
forestry industry tends to employ migratory workers for its
less-skilled, labor-intensive operations. Loggers, however,
tend to be more permanently associated with their employ-
ers, sometimes commuting long distances as their work sites
change location.

Given the differences in the nature of forestry and log-
ging, these two endeavors are categorized as two separate
industries by Standard Industrial Classification (SIC) codes.”
Under this classification system, forestry is considered an
agricultural industry and logging, a manufacturing industry.’°

—ENDNOTES—

} McNamara-O" Hara Service Contract Act of 1965 (41 United States
Code 351).

2 Except for forestry surveys in Idaho and Montana, which required four
or more workers per establishment.

3 The Society of American Foresters: About Forestry, online, http://
www safe org/for/main.html, The Society of American Foresters, Bethesda,
Maryland, 1996.

“Tripod Occupational Listings, http://www.tripod.com/work/hot_jobs/
gallery/foresters.html, 1996.

5 Occupational Outlook Handbook, 1996-97, Bulletin 2470, Bureau of
Labor Statistics, Washington, DC (1996), p. 338.

* According to a 1996 poll by the American Pulpwood Association,

53 Compensation and Working Conditions Spring 1997

Rockville, Maryland.

7 For a recent history of unionization in the logging sector and decisions
by the National Labor Relations Board on recognition of logging contractors’
approval for union certification, see How to Stay at Peace With Your Gov-
ernment, American Pulpwood Association, Hatton-Brown Publishers (1993),
pp. 89-119,

* Occupational Outlook Handbook, 1996-97, p. 338.

* Forestry is SIC code 08, and logging is SIC code 2411.

1 Under the new North American Industry Classification System, for-
estry and logging will both be classified as an agricultural industry (Forestry
and Logging, code 113).

TT