Hiring Your First Roofing Employee

What changes when you hire

When it was just you, roof safety was a personal habit. With an employee on the roof, OSHA's construction rules spell out duties you owe that person, starting with a fall protection training program for each employee who might be exposed to fall hazards ¹ and protective equipment provided at no cost to them ².

Roofing is where those duties carry the most weight. In 2024, roofers had a fatal work injury rate of 48.7 per 100,000 full-time equivalent workers, with 104 deaths ³, against a rate of 3.3 for all workers ⁴. Across private construction that year, 389 of the 1,034 deaths were due to falls, slips and trips, and 95.9 percent of those were falls to a lower level ⁵. The Occupational Outlook Handbook adds that roofers have one of the highest rates of injuries and illnesses of all occupations ⁶.

This guide covers the parts of a first hire that are specific to roofing: the role, the employee-or-sub question, workers' comp, fall protection training and records, the gear you pay for, heat and the real hourly cost. For licensing and the insurance you need before any of this, start with how to start a roofing business.

Decide who you're hiring and what they'll do

Pick the role before you post the job, because it sets your training load and your cost. Two roles make sense as a first hire:

• A ground and tear-off hand. Strips the old roof, runs debris to the dumpster, hauls and stages material, sweeps for nails and keeps the site clean. Every hour they spend on that is an hour you spend installing, measuring or selling.
• An experienced installer. Adds real install capacity and can grow into a crew lead, but costs more and still needs training on your systems. Experience shortens the training; it doesn't replace it.

Name a crew lead, even on a crew of two

Someone has to own safety on every roof: checking anchors and harnesses before work starts, calling the day when wind or rain moves in, running the heat schedule for new people and keeping the training records. At first that's you. Fall protection training must be given by a competent person ¹, so whoever you later promote to crew lead should be able to teach and inspect the systems your crew uses, and should have your authority to stop work on the spot.

Settle how weather days work

BLS describes roofers as working outdoors in very hot or very cold weather, but not when there is precipitation or when it is very windy ⁶. Your new hire's hours will move with the forecast, so decide before they start how rain days work (shop work, a guaranteed minimum, or an unpaid day called off the night before) and put it in writing. Check your state's wage rules before you send anyone home after they have already reported to work.

The under-18 rule for roofing

Federal child labor rules generally prohibit anyone under 18 from working in any roofing occupation, on the roof or on the ground, and from other work on or about a roof, including from ladders and scaffolds at or near it ⁷. Ground work such as material handling, tending tar kettles, cleanup and removing the old roof is covered too ⁷. The exception is narrow: 16- and 17-year-olds employed in a bona fide apprenticeship or student-learner program ⁷. A 17-year-old summer helper who only hauls shingles is not a workaround, and your state's child labor law may add limits of its own.

Employee or subcontracted crew

The other way to add capacity is to subcontract installs to another roofing crew. Done properly, that is a deal between two businesses: the crew carries its own insurance, brings its own equipment and decides how to do the work you contracted for. Before you pay a regular crew as subcontractors, answer these honestly:

• Who sets their start time and decides which roof they work on today?
• Who owns the nailers, harnesses and anchors they use?
• Do they work for other contractors, or only for you?
• If a roof they installed leaks, who pays to fix it?

If most of the answers point to you, have a CPA or employment lawyer review the arrangement before you rely on it. The IRS and the states each apply their own tests, and the result depends on the facts; the basics are in independent contractor.

For a crew that really is independent, collect certificates of their workers' comp and liability coverage before they start, write your fall protection expectations into the subcontract, and ask your insurance agent how your own policies treat a sub whose coverage has lapsed.

Line up workers' comp before the first day

Workers' compensation is set by state law, and the rules on when you must carry it, and on how it applies to you as an owner, differ from state to state. Confirm your obligations with your state's workers' compensation agency or a licensed agent before your hire's first day, not after the first injury. Workers' compensation insurance explains the basics.

Three roofing-specific habits help:

• Get a quote before you post the job. Ask how the carrier will classify the work and what that does to the price, then put the number into the cost math below.
• Describe the work accurately. Tear-off, steep-slope or low-slope installs and any torch or hot work all belong in the description, so the policy matches what the person will actually do.
• Don't assume your general liability policy covers an injured employee. Ask your agent to answer that in writing.

Fall protection: the rule and the training

The rule on residential roofs

In residential construction, each employee working 6 feet or more above a lower level must be protected by a guardrail system, a safety net system or a personal fall arrest system, unless another provision of the rule allows an alternative ⁸. The glossary entry on fall protection explains each method. Only if you can show those systems are infeasible or create a greater hazard may you rely instead on a fall protection plan that meets OSHA's separate requirements for such plans ⁸.

Don't count on that exception. OSHA presumes that at least one of the conventional systems is feasible and won't create a greater hazard, and it expects them to work for the vast majority of residential construction. Since June 16, 2011, contractors relying on the alternative methods in OSHA's rescinded 1999 interim residential guidelines have been subject to citation if they don't meet the rule ⁹.

On a pitched residential roof, the practical answer is usually a personal fall arrest system: a harness, a lanyard or rope grab on a lifeline, and a roof anchor. If an experienced hire learned on other methods, have that conversation on day one, on the ground, not halfway up a steep roof.

If you do low-slope work, read the low-slope provisions too. The training rule specifically mentions safety monitoring systems and limits on mechanical equipment during roofing work on low-sloped roofs ¹.

What the training must cover

Each employee who might be exposed to fall hazards must be trained by a competent person to recognize the hazards of falling and in the procedures that minimize them ¹. Depending on the systems you use, the topics include ¹:

• the nature of fall hazards in the work area;
• correct procedures for erecting, maintaining, disassembling and inspecting the fall protection systems to be used;
• each employee's role in a safety monitoring system, when one is used;
• limits on using mechanical equipment during roofing work on low-sloped roofs;
• each employee's role in a fall protection plan, if you use one;
• the fall protection standards themselves.

On a residential crew, "the systems to be used" means hands-on work with your own gear: how you install and check the roof anchors you buy, how the harness should fit and be adjusted, how the first person up gets connected, how the lifeline moves as the work moves across the roof, how to carry and handle a pneumatic nailer on a slope, and what the crew does if someone falls and is left hanging in a harness.

Keep a written certification record

You verify the training with a written certification record containing ¹:

• the name or other identity of the employee trained;
• the date or dates of the training;
• the signature of the person who conducted the training, or of the employer.

Keep the latest certification for each employee ¹. A one-page form works. Add the topics you covered and the equipment you trained on (anchor type, harness and lifeline models), so you can tell when the record no longer matches what the crew uses.

Retrain when it isn't sticking

If you have reason to believe a trained employee doesn't have the understanding and skill the training requires, you have to retrain them ¹. Treat a switch to a new anchor or lifeline system, a near miss, or catching someone working untied as that reason, and update the certification record each time.

Note: Some states run their own OSHA-approved safety and health programs, and their rules can differ from the federal rules described here. If yours does, check its fall protection, training and heat requirements as well.

Equipment you have to provide

Protective equipment used to comply with OSHA's construction standards, including personal protective equipment, must be provided by the employer at no cost to employees, with a few exceptions ². For a roofer, that puts the harness, lanyard or rope grab, lifeline and anchors on your bill, not your new hire's.

The exceptions are narrow. You don't have to pay for non-specialty safety-toe boots or non-specialty prescription safety glasses, as long as you let employees wear them off the job site, or for everyday clothing and ordinary weather gear such as winter coats, raincoats, rubber boots, ordinary sunglasses and sunscreen ².

A starting kit for one new roofer:

• a harness that fits the person wearing it (buy for the hire, not for you);
• a lanyard or rope grab, and a lifeline long enough for your tallest, steepest roofs;
• roof anchors and the fasteners their manufacturer specifies;
• eye protection for nailing and cutting, and hearing protection if compressors and nailers run all day;
• burn protection if you do hot work, since roofers can be burned by hot bitumen ⁶.

Inspect fall protection gear the way its manufacturer's instructions say, and follow those instructions on when to retire it, especially after it has stopped a fall.

Heat: protect the first week

Roofs can become extremely hot during the summer, causing heat-related illnesses ⁶, and new workers face the most risk. OSHA says over 70 percent of heat-related deaths happen during a worker's first week, and almost half on the first day on the job or the first day back after an extended absence ¹⁰.

OSHA's guidance for new and returning workers is the 20% rule: start with 20% of the usual time in the heat on the first day, then increase by no more than 20% on each following day ¹⁰.

Example: Your crew normally works 10 hours in summer heat. Under the 20% rule, a new hire works about 2 hours in the heat on day one, 4 on day two, 6 on day three, 8 on day four and the full 10 on day five. Put their roof time in the cooler morning, and use the rest of day one for fall protection training out of the sun.

Make water, rest and shade part of the schedule, not something a new hire has to ask for, and have the crew lead keep a close eye on them through that first week. Check whether your state has heat rules of its own. For planning crews through the hot months, see the roofing seasonal playbook.

What a first roofing employee really costs

Start with the market. BLS reports a median annual wage for roofers of $55,440 in May 2025, about $26.65 an hour ⁶. That is a national figure, and pay in your area may be higher or lower. BLS also projects about 12,000 openings for roofers each year, on average, over the 2025 to 2035 decade ⁶, so experienced installers will have options.

The wage is only the start. An hour of roof work also has to carry employer payroll taxes, workers' comp, gear and the paid hours that never touch a roof: rain days, drive time, training and supply runs. How to set your labor rate walks through building a fully burdened rate.

Example: You pay a new roofer $25 an hour for a 40-hour week, so $1,000 in wages. Suppose employer payroll taxes add $80, workers' comp adds $200 and you set aside $20 a week for gear (made-up numbers; get real ones from your payroll provider and your agent). That is $1,300 a week, or $32.50 per paid hour. If weather, drive time and supply runs leave 30 hours of actual roof work, each productive hour costs about $43.33. Use $43.33, not $25, when you work out the labor in each square you price, then add overhead and profit on top.

Pricing labor and materials by the roofing square is covered in how to price roofing jobs. If you are thinking about paying installers by the square instead of by the hour, ask your payroll provider or state labor department how minimum wage and overtime apply before you set it up.

A first-week plan

1. Before day one: workers' comp confirmed for your state, fall protection gear bought and fitted, and written policies for rain days and tie-off.
2. Day one: fall protection training on your own systems, ending with a signed certification record, then a short first stint in the heat.
3. Days one to five: the step-up heat schedule from the heat section, with the new hire working beside you or your crew lead.
4. Every morning: anchors, harnesses and the forecast checked before anyone climbs.
5. End of week one: watch the new hire set up and inspect their own fall protection. If they can't do it without help, retrain them and update the record.