A roofing crew leader job description should open with the pay range and the words “W-2 employee, no subs,” then give the crew size, the roof types, the hours and the step up after crew leader. For pay, the Bureau of Labor Statistics put the national median for roofers at $26.65 an hour in May 2025.
The template below is ready to fill in. Hiring sub crews is a different job, covered in How to Find and Keep Reliable Roofing Sub Crews.
A crew leader ad should state the pay and say the job is on payroll
Put “W-2” in the title of the ad, because sub crews looking for work answer roofing ads too. Then put the pay range in the body. In Washington, employers with 15 or more employees must list the wage range (or the fixed wage) and a general description of benefits in every job posting, including ones placed through a job board. Check whether your state has a similar rule before you post.
Copy this, fill in the brackets and cut any line that isn’t true of your company.
Roofing Crew Leader (W-2 employee, no subs)
[Company name], [city, state]. Full time, [start time] to [end time], [days].
Pay: $[] to $[] an hour, paid [weekly]. [Benefits you offer now, and any that start after a set time: health, dental, vision, paid time off, 401(k) match, gas card, uniforms.]
What you’ll do
- Run a crew of [__] on residential [shingle / tile / metal] tear-offs and replacements.
- Set up fall protection before anyone works 6 feet or more above a lower level, and help new hires learn it.
- Check the material drop against the order before tear-off, and call the office when decking or flashing needs work that isn’t on the job sheet.
- Leave the site clean and walk the finished roof with [the homeowner / the project manager].
What you need
- [] years installing [shingles], with at least [] of them leading a crew.
- Comfortable on roofs up to [] stories and []/12 pitch.
- A valid driver’s license and a way to reach the shop by [time].
- [English and Spanish a plus.]
Where this job goes: crew leader to site supervisor after [] months, then project manager after [], with a raise at each step.
To apply: call or text [name] at [number], or apply at [your careers page]. Applications in English or Spanish are welcome.
Post on Indeed, ZipRecruiter, a roofing Facebook group and your own careers page
A framing and roofing contractor on r/Contractor asked other owners, “Does anyone use Indeed, Zip Recruiter to find employees?” A hiring manager at a roofing company asked where roofers and foremen look for work beyond Indeed. Post in more than one place.
The Facebook group “Roofers Needed” has 72,000 members and is used for roofing crew recruiting across the country. Sub crews advertise themselves for work in roofing groups like it, so an employee ad has to say what it is in the first line. A Buffalo roofing company did it on Facebook in one line: “Still looking for 2 Experienced Shinglers Employee only no Subs.”
A careers page on your own site can show up in Google’s job search, where people filter by job title and location, once it carries the code Google reads to list a job (Google calls it JobPosting structured data). That code needs the date posted, the description, your company, the job location and the title, and Google recommends adding the pay and whether the job is full time. Ask whoever built your site to add it. When the job is filled, mark the listing expired or take the page down, because Google says failing to act on expired jobs “may result in a manual action.”
Post every ad in Spanish as well as English. In the 2025 Current Population Survey, 64.7% of employed roofers were Hispanic or Latino, against 20.0% of all employed people.
A Detroit owner set $40 an hour for shinglers and $25 for tear-off
An owner in Detroit posted in July 2025 that he had moved back to an in-house crew, paying $40 an hour for shinglers and $25 an hour for tear-off. The BLS median in the opening covers roofers nationally and gives no separate figure for foremen or helpers, so set each role’s range from what owners near you pay.
One roofing employer on Reddit lets the worker choose the pay basis: “an hourly W2 wage or a flat day rate (their choice),” plus a gas card and uniforms, with health, dental, vision, PTO and a 401(k) match as benefits to work up to. Before you offer a day rate on payroll, ask your payroll provider how overtime is figured on it.
Another owner on r/Roofing pays crew leaders by the square: “I pay my crew leaders $100 per sqr.for 1story 9/12 & under,” and $110 for two stories. He doesn’t say whether they are on payroll. Whichever basis you pick, write a separate range for each role into its ad, with tear-off below installers and crew leaders above both.
Train helpers toward foreman, and keep them on W-2
One small roofing owner says writing down the path made a difference: crew lead after 6 months, site supervisor after a year, project manager after two years, with a raise at each step. That is the “Where this job goes” line in the template.
The Labor Department’s proposed contractor rule, still not final as of October 2026, describes a worker on a roofing crew who started with no roofing skills and was trained by the company, and says the skill factor “weighs in favor of the individual being an employee.” The IRS adds that a company that treats an employee as a contractor with no reasonable basis can owe that worker’s employment taxes. Put trainees on W-2 from the first day.
A W-2 hire brings paperwork a sub crew never did
USCIS says employers do not complete Form I-9 for independent contractors or for workers a contractor supplies, so an owner who has only used subs may never have filled one out. Every W-2 hire needs one. The handbook adds: “You cannot hire an individual who you know is not authorized to work in the United States.”
The 2025 civil penalty for knowingly hiring or keeping an unauthorized worker runs up to $5,724 per worker on a first offense, and I-9 paperwork violations cost up to $2,861 each.
After a Notice of Inspection, ICE gives at least three business days to produce the forms, so keep them filed where the office can find them.
In Florida, private employers with 25 or more employees have had to use E-Verify for new hires since July 1, 2023. Texas lets most private employers skip workers’ comp, but those that do must notify the state and report injuries with more than one day of lost time. Most states require coverage once a company has employees, so check your state’s rule before the first hire starts. Roofing Workers’ Comp and General Liability: What It Costs and How Audits Work covers the cost.
Train every new hire on fall protection and keep a signed record
OSHA’s rule 1926.503 says “The employer shall provide a training program for each employee who might be exposed to fall hazards.” A competent person has to give it, covering the fall hazards and the fall protection systems in use, among other items. In fiscal 2025 fall protection was OSHA’s most cited standard, and this training rule came seventh.
Keep a written certification record for each person trained, with the employee’s name, the training date and the trainer’s or employer’s signature. Retrain anyone who seems to lack the understanding or skill, and retrain the crew when the fall protection systems change. A serious violation can cost up to $16,550. Your crew leader can help new hires learn the setup, and the signed record stays with the office. OSHA Rules and a Safety Program for a Roofing Company covers the full program.
Check these before the first W-2 installer starts
- Put “W-2 employee, no subs” and the pay range in the first lines of the ad.
- Post it in English and Spanish on a job board and in a roofing Facebook group.
- Add Google’s job posting code to the listing on your careers page.
- Set separate pay ranges for tear-off, installers and crew leaders.
- Complete an I-9 for each hire, and use E-Verify if your state requires it.
- Confirm your state’s workers’ comp rule.
- Train each new hire on fall protection before the first roof, and file the signed record.
- Mark the posting expired once the job is filled.
A crew on payroll gets paid in slow weeks too, so the jobs have to keep coming from homeowners who search for a roofer. Run the free Google Maps heatmap: pick your Google profile and a search, and in a few minutes you’ll see where you rank at 49 points around your office.