NADA Dealership Workforce Study
Now Available: 2026 NADA National & Regional Trends in Compensation, Benefits & Retention Report (2025 Calendar Year Data)
NADA has prepared the “2026 National & Regional Trends in Compensation, Benefits & Retention Report” for its members to stay current on the latest workforce trends happening in the new car auto retail industry across both the country and regionally.
This report is the latest and most comprehensive review of compensation, turnover, retention, benefits, hiring, and demographics trends. Use this report to:
- Get a full picture of who auto dealerships are hiring by generation and gender.
- Understand what benefits dealerships are offering to retain and attract talent.
- Find out what happened to turnover and retention by position and department.
- View data on key positions in your region.
- Salary, turnover, and retention information for over 60 job titles and see data broken out by region and luxury vs. non-luxury brands.
- And much more!
Thanks to our 2026 Dealership Workforce Study participants, we collected and analyzed over 253,000 payroll records from the 2025 calendar year which provided us with salary, demographics and turnover data along with responses to a benefits questionnaire. The questionnaire allowed us to analyze health plan benefits offered, retirement plans, paid time off, hiring trends, and more.
NADA members who could not participate in the 2026 NADA Dealership Workforce Study may purchase this National & Regional Trends in Compensation Benefits & Retention report. This is 2025 calendar year data. Price of the report: $795. You must be a NADA member and login to purchase.
Contacts
What is the NADA Dealership Workforce Study?
NADA knows that dealers today face numerous challenges, including high employee turnover, difficulties in recruitment, and the constant pressure to remain competitive in a rapidly evolving market. These demands deplete valuable resources and significantly impact overall dealership performance and profitability. Understanding workforce trends and leveraging data-driven insights are crucial steps in effectively addressing these issues.
The NADA Dealership Workforce Study is a resource to assist dealer in addressing these challenges and understanding trends with real data from NADA members. It is the most comprehensive examination of auto dealership workforce trends. This study provides the latest industry data on employee compensation, benefits, turnover, retention, demographics, hiring trends, hours of operation and more.
Testimonials
❝What I value most about the dashboard is having all the information in one place rather than searching through my stored files. It is also an effective resource to share with managers during wage discussions and when evaluating potential benefit changes or additions. ❞
Tracy, Director Human Resources | Dick Hannah Dealerships
❝The NADA Workforce Study Dashboard has proven to be a highly useful tool for our HR team, providing instant benchmarking data on team turnover and pay rates across the industry. The peer group comparison and position filters have allowed us to quickly make evaluations on where we stand compared against others dealers in our region. This has been an easy to use and highly effective tool! ❞
Kevin, Director Human Resources | Bergstrom Automotive | WI
❝The NADA Dealership Workforce Study dashboard is a powerful resource we use at Penske Automotive Group. It provides ease of use to dig into data without having to wade through all the paper. The dashboard's core strength is its ability to facilitate effortless benchmarking. We can easily compare our dealership's metrics against regional, national, brand (luxury vs. non-luxury), and sales volume trends. This really allows for a quick assessment of how our stores compare to the industry. ❞
Brian, Director, HRIS & Administration | Penske Automotive
What do you get for participating in the study?
- National & Regional Trends Report: Overview of compensation, benefits, turnover, retention, hiring, and demographics trends. ATD Members: Use your member login to view a sample report.
- Workforce Dashboard: Your data at your fingertips. View your submitted data and conduct custom comparison analysis vs. several peer groups. View compensation, retention, turnover, and benefits data. Export custom reports. Use the query tool to look up compensation and retention data dating back 10 years. All of this is exclusive to participants only for one-year.
Workforce Dashboard
Watch the Dealer Driven Podcast
"Attract. Reward. Retain.: Lessons from NADA’s Workforce Study"
In today’s rapidly changing automotive landscape, one truth remains clear: your people are your greatest competitive edge. That’s the core message behind the latest episode of NADA’s Dealer Driven podcast. NADA staff unpack the findings from the NADA Dealership Workforce Study—the industry’s most comprehensive look at compensation, benefits and workforce trends.
