Sierra Research Associates LLC
12047 Donner Pass Road A-3
Truckee, CA 96161
Phone: 916-476-9108
Website: www.sierraresearchassociates.com
Email: survey2015@sierraresearchassociates.com
THE 2015 NSAA SALARY SURVEY
Thank you for participating in the NSAA 2015 National Ski Area Salary Survey. Sierra Research Associates
LLC is pleased to be conducting this year’s survey and hopes you will find this survey tool easy to use.
The NSAA Salary Survey primarily seeks to identify and report on the base pay for the 233 most
frequently used jobs in the US Ski Industry. As in the past, when filling out the survey you are asked to
identify which survey job most closely matches the work done by your employees, and report those
employee’s hourly (or salary based) wages. The focus of this survey is to capture hourly (or salaried)
compensation rather than “total” compensation.
ENHANCEMENTS TO THE SURVEY:
This year 4 additional positions have been added to the survey and one position has been updated to
better reflect the work and responsibilities of the position. You will find these identified in the position
title with either “(Updated 2015)” or “(New 2015)”. Three of the new positions capture information
about Mountain Biking positions (mechanic, patrol, and instructor) and the other two address positions
in MIS Systems Application Management.
Hourly vs Salaried Pay and Base Pay vs Incentive Pay.
As started in the 2013 survey, there are two further aspects to the data that you are being asked to
provide. The first being how your resort is treating each position (hourly or salaried). The survey includes
input boxes for you to indicate whether a particular job is normally paid on an hourly or salaried basis at
your resort. The second addition captures whether resorts are reporting more than base pay for the
wages they report. Input boxes are included for indicating if a job’s wage information is being reported
in purely Base Pay, or if other forms of compensation have been included in the calculation of the
reported wages.
PREVAILING WAGE: As in the past, this survey includes expanded job descriptions for 14 positions (see
red tab below). These positions will be surveyed with the objective of allowing the data to be used for
Prevailing Wage determination by resorts requesting VISA’s through the Department of Labor. In
addition to being surveyed with NSAA Membership, these positions will also be surveyed with
approximately 150 non-NSAA Member resorts across the United States.
VISA INFORMATION: As in the past, this survey includes collecting information on the employment of
international employees in one of the US VISA Programs (H2B, J1, O1, and Q Visas). Please be sure to
take a moment and review the Resort Info Input sheet and enter these important categories of
information.
REPORTING FIELDS: This survey input sheet (Form SS2) includes the following reporting fields for each
job: the number of incumbents, average hourly wage rate, lowest paid incumbent rate, highest paid
incumbent rate, and a score (match code) from one to five for the level your position matches the
description presented.
Sierra Research Associates LLC
12047 Donner Pass Road A-3
Truckee, CA 96161
Phone: 916-476-9108
Website: www.sierraresearchassociates.com
Email: survey2015@sierraresearchassociates.com
MATCH CODES: The match criteria are used to show how closely your position matches a theoretical
industry norm for a position based on the description provided. You should code a position at your own
resort that you determine to be a close match as a “3”. A position of much less responsibility than the
description as a “1” and a position of much greater responsibility as a “5”. You may use “2” and “4”
respectively when a job is similar to the norm but not a match. .
CONFIDENTIALITY: As in past surveys, Sierra Research Associates will keep your data strictly
confidential and use it for consolidated reporting only. Data will only be published when it can be
consolidated with three or more reporting resorts for a given job and resort category.
PAY RATES: This is a survey of actual paid hourly rates for the Ski Resort Industry. Please insure that all
information is accurate and complete for your resort and reflects current wage and salary rates.
GETTING STARTED:
Please begin by downloading and re-naming the survey file. Your file name should be your resort’s name
plus 2015. (For example: “SnowWhiteSkiArea2015.xls”) Once renamed save the file and close it
completely. Then reopen the file to begin your work.
One reopened please first complete your resort related information on the SS FORM 1: “Resort Info
Input” to the right of the “Instructions” tab that you are now on. This allows the data for your resort to
be categorized and provides contact information in case we require clarification on the information
provided.
NEXT: Once this is completed, begin entering job specific information on SS-FORM 2: “Job Detail Input”
sheet that you will find next on this excel workbook. If you find it helpful this spreadsheet can be printed
and used for data collection before entering it electronically on the spreadsheet.
DEADLINE: When completed please submit your data electronically by emailing your completed
spreadsheet to survey2015@sierraresearchassociates.com Please note that your completed file should
be submitted as an email attachment so it can be processed accurately.
All data is required on or before February 28, 2015 so it can be compiled and analyzed for publication to
the NSAA Membership this spring.
HELP: Should you have questions on completing the survey you can email Sierra Research Associates at
survey2015@sierraresearchassociates.com and a member of our team will contact you normally within
24 hours.
Again, thank you for your participation in this year’s survey.
Dr. Harold Richins and Charles Riley
Sierra Research Associates LLC
Phone: 916-476-9108