PAY RISE RECOMMENDED

Following extensive research, the Committee for Golf Club Salaries (CGCS) has recommended a 7% increase in the salaries of golf club staff for 2024. 

With an increase in the National Living Wage due to come into force from April 2024, to ensure all staff remain ahead of that base line a 9% increase has also been recommended for assistant greenkeeper salaries.

The increases have been added to the salary calculators provided on the CGCS website and take into account the National Living Wage increase, the prevailing economic environment and the importance of golf facility staff to the overall industry.

The salary calculators take into account geographic regions, facility size, core responsibilities, club rating, qualifications and experience, ensuring recommendations can be tailored to individual members of staff. 

The CGCS is comprised of representatives of the British & International Golf Greenkeepers Association (BIGGA) and the Golf Club Managers’ Association (GCMA) alongside independent golf club experts.

While keen to impress the need for golf clubs to ensure staff are suitably paid and valued by their employers, the committee says its also aware that employee reward and retention must be balanced alongside the affordability and financial health of the business.

Alongside salaries, the organisations represented on the CGCS advocate for the provision of resources aimed at supporting employee mental health and wellbeing, as well as providing adequate opportunities for career pathway support, training and development. 

John Pearson, membership services manager for BIGGA’s South East Region, who represents BIGGA on the CGCS, said, "Our hope is that trained golf club staff take these recommendations to their senior management team and have open and professional conversations about salaries and other employee benefits, such as training and development opportunities.

“Highly trained staff are critical to the continuing success of golf, from the grassroots through to elite championship level, and we were heartened to hear that more than 16 million people enjoyed playing some form of golf in the past year. Golf is experiencing a boom and these recommendations go some way towards recognising those who have helped make it possible. 

“Today’s greenkeepers are highly trained, knowledgeable members of the golf club structure and if course standards are to be maintained at the level golfers have come to expect, the industry must be an attractive proposition with regards to salaries and working conditions to encourage the recruitment and retention of staff.”