2023 Annual Salary Guide for UK Construction Claims and Disputes Jobs

We are pleased to present the 3^rd dedicated salary survey and guide for construction claims and disputes professionals working in the UK.

Over the last few years, our efforts to document salary levels and pay rise levels have been of significant interest to both disputes employers and to disputes professionals alike.  As always, we have done our best to research and present data that is as accurate as possible that comes from our own experience of working to recruit in this niche of the construction industry.

The figures below are based on Basic Salary and Car/Travel Allowances added together as part of a package but excludes any other benefits and excludes bonuses (whether “guaranteed” or discretionary). The information relates purely to staff employed on a permanent (PAYE) basis and does not include freelance or contract staff remuneration or pay rates.

Other complex factors are also at play – salaries can vary in different parts of the UK (London area is usually the highest paying area) and experience gained outside of the UK or in different sectors of industry or subsections or specialist sections of the construction industry can be evaluated and remunerated differently by different employers.

To state the obvious, the very best way to get a truly accurate valuation of what an employer needs to pay for a premium disputes professional is the same as what a possible jobseeker in construction disputes wanting to know their market value also needs to do – they both need to go to market and find out what the market is telling them these skills cost/are worth.

Without further ado, we have collated the confirmed salary figures secured over the last year or so for 4 different levels of seniority and they are as follows:

2023 Salary Guide for Construction Claims and Dispute Professionals in UK Employment:

A Guide to the Different Job Titles and Levels of Seniority

Many employers within the construction disputes sector have their own hierarchy structures and job titles for each level, so it is worth elaborating on the criteria used here to assign salaries to each level of seniority.

Consultant (aka Analyst)

Consultant level roles are true entry level roles into the construction disputes sector.  Candidates will usually have gained up to 4 years of previous experience in a traditional professional construction role such as a Quantity Surveyor / PQS, Planner, Project Manager or Engineer.  The experience gained will be relevant and useful and will be transferable into their new construction disputes role.  An example of this would be a QS who had dealt with variations and establishing contract entitlements moving into a quantum claims consultant role with a specialist claims consultancy.

If the experience gained is less relevant for disputes work, it could be that candidates with 4-8 years’ experience might still enter specialist construction dispute work at this level.

Senior Consultant (aka ‘Manager’ or ‘Senior Manager’ in some companies)

Senior Consultant (Quantum/Delay) is often assigned to candidates with c5-12 years of experience in a traditional construction role where they have worked for a contractor, PQS or client organisation rather than for a dedicated specialist disputes consultancy.

Candidates at this level will combine a good technical understanding of their role undertaken to date, as well as having amassed some experience of handling construction disputes for their employer.  This could be a Planner evaluating a project’s critical path and demonstrating delays or a Senior QS involved in claims assessment and contract review work.  These duties could have been undertaken in either a management or in a supporting role.

Candidates with little or no experience of and exposure to dispute work are at a disadvantage. This can be the case for example with Quantity Surveyors or Planners that have worked within the housing sector where construction disputes rarely occur in the same way as in civil engineering or building contracting.  This limitation can be mitigated (if not always fully overcome) through the completion of specialist construction dispute qualifications such as an MSc or LLM in Construction Law to allow you demonstrate a thorough theoretical understanding of the issues to be handled.

Those familiar with either of the two previous Maxim Claims and Dispute Salary Surveys, will remember that we historically included the ‘Managing Consultant’ level of seniority. We are finding that this title is rarely used now by most employers so for the purposes of this survey, has now been discontinued and subsumed mostly into the levels of Senior Consultant and also into the Associate Director level where appropriate.

Associate Director (aka ‘Director’ in some companies)

Candidates considered for Associate Director level roles will always have previously gained significant experience in managing complex disputes and will often have experience of carrying out expert witness duties or will have consistently worked as a lead assistant to an expert witness.

Associate Directors suitable for construction dispute job roles will have demonstrable experience and skills gained while managing junior dispute specialists.  They will also most probably have undertaken some business development and business management work relating to construction dispute work pipeline.

Premium calibre quantum or delay Associate Directors will already have a profile and connections with the construction legal profession, with solicitors and law firms having them on their radar and networking list as a contact to reach out to when their help with a construction dispute is needed.

Premium Associate Directors within quantum or delay are likely to be dual qualified with a construction qualification/Chartership as well as a construction law qualification.

Director (aka ‘Senior Director’ in some companies)

Director level candidates will often have acted as an expert witness on multiple occasions, having prepared for and successfully testified in court on multiple occasions. At this level, Quantum Directors / Delay Directors will be fully experienced and able to lead a dispute, testify, be cross-examined as well as be able to manage a team to efficiently prepare expert reports.

Candidates for Director level construction dispute appointments will have a well-established network of legal professionals and will be able to use their network to be able to develop and generate new dispute work for their employer.

How Have Construction Dispute Salaries Changed Between 2022 to 2023?

It may not be a massive surprise to see it confirmed that salaries within construction disputes have increased significantly in the last year. 

An accurate measure of exactly how much they have increased is hard to determine given the range of variables influencing the individual circumstances of particular candidates we have found jobs for. 

If pushed to put a broad-brush figure on salary growth in general within construction disputes, it can be confidently stated however that a typical salary is likely to be increasing significantly year on year to the tune of 5-15% even before the benefits of promotion and advancement are factored in.  This of course assumes that the employee is good at their job and is working for a company that is appreciating and rewarding your efforts appropriately.

It is sometimes necessary for people to move employers to get the right ‘fit’ and to be fully appreciated and remunerated, while at other times career progression and salary increases can happen seamlessly through the internal promotion and pay rise processes of a well-run employer that recognises and rewards well performing employees.

Which Levels of Seniority within Construction Disputes Have Experienced the Highest Salary Increases?

It appears that salaries in the ‘Senior Consultant’ category across both quantum and delay are the ones that have increased the most.  This could be due to the skills shortage and competition to retain Senior Quantity Surveyors and Senior Planners within mainstream construction organizations.  Gone are the days, it appears, of dispute consultancies offering a pay reduction but the promise of a rewarding career within construction disputes? Some disputes employers may need to take note of this to be able to fill the roles they are seeking candidates for.

** An anomaly in the data appears to be with the Associate Directors level within Quantum, where salaries appear not to have risen.  This may well be due to a high number of the candidates that feature in the Maxim data this year having arrived from overseas and not having had previous UK based disputes experience.  It could also be because by chance a higher proportion of candidates at this level found work outside London than was the case in the previous 2 years in which this survey was conducted.

Other Factors to Consider in Addition to Salary:

Bonus Payments

Bonus payments are an interesting topic to consider that are not included in the data above.  Some disputes companies have recently suspended discretionary bonus payments altogether (on both company and individual performance).  Others have retained and expanded ambitious bonus schemes focused on encouraging business development, the creation of additional revenue streams and maximizing billable consultant hours. This sort of bonus incentive scheme can be highly lucrative if you are the type of person well positioned to take advantage of such incentives, and can affect your total remuneration package substantially.

Employer Market Positioning Within Disputes and the Size of Dispute Employers

The salary data we have gathered could be analysed and presented to take account of numerous factors; for example the size and target market of dispute employers could be a factor in the figures if we recruited more into one type at a certain seniority level more than another.  Also, do smaller dispute consultancies need to pay more than large employers to secure talent? Are they able to or are larger companies more limited in their ability to respond to salary increase requests as they are limited by salary bandings and the possibility of staff at the same level speaking to each other?

Perhaps of greater consequence is the possible factor that employers specialising in longer duration arbitrations have a greater certainty of work pipeline at a higher charge out rate and profit margin than companies focusing on shorter turnaround adjudications and more volatile claims preparation work?

Summary

There are significant limitations with both large-scale construction industry salary surveys as well as the limitations of our much smaller data collection exercise and smaller sample size.  Our survey is more of a qualitative study with possible limitations and error factors that could have some effect on the accuracy of the figures presented. 

Having said that, it appears abundantly clear both from these statistics and from a gut feel from working in this market day in day out, that salaries within construction disputes continue to increase.  If disputes professionals are working hard and doing a good job, they can expect additional reward for their efforts to be added to their pay packets even before progression and promotion considerations are taken into account.

Moving into your first construction disputes job from mainstream construction no longer requires a drop in salary in most circumstances, as long as people are moving into the sector at the appropriate time in their career when the previous experience they have gained can be utilised and is relevant for their next stage of development within the construction disputes sector.

A word of warning to jobseekers and employers though; changing jobs for reasons of money alone is often a mistake. Very high salaries offered by employers can often be a red flag indicating other problems at an employer that are at first hidden in the background.  The best employers and jobs you can do in the construction dispute sector, are jobs that you are happy doing day in day out, and where you are looked after in a number of ways in addition to money alone. 

Many of my best employer clients aren’t always the very best paying ones (although some are). Maybe I should write the ‘Best Construction Disputes Employer Guide’, as well as a salary guide - although having said that, isn’t a professional recruitment process one that ends up with the best all round match being found for employer and employee alike? We will do our best!

2022 Annual Survey

2021 Annual Survey

Steve Thomas
Construction Recruitment Director, UK & Canada
Maxim Recruitment
LinkedIn

Steve is responsible for Maxim Recruitment in the UK and Canada. He is based in the Maxim head office in Leicester, UK and the Toronto office in Canada. He regularly travels to meet employers and job seekers and attend construction industry networking events in the UK, Canada and worldwide. Steve has over 25 years of experience in construction and property recruitment and enjoys working with many repeat clients. He manages dedicated search and headhunting assignments for a range of premium UK, Canadian and international clients.