diff --git a/pom.xml b/pom.xml
index 3394c6d3..486c6f21 100644
--- a/pom.xml
+++ b/pom.xml
@@ -14,6 +14,7 @@
 
 	<properties>
 		<project.build.sourceEncoding>UTF-8</project.build.sourceEncoding>
+		<java.version>1.7</java.version>
 		<dropwizard.version>0.8.0-rc1</dropwizard.version>
 		<guice.version>4.0-beta5</guice.version>
 		<querydsl.version>3.6.0</querydsl.version>
@@ -40,8 +41,8 @@
 				<artifactId>maven-compiler-plugin</artifactId>
 				<version>3.1</version>
 				<configuration>
-					<source>1.7</source>
-					<target>1.7</target>
+					<source>${java.version}</source>
+					<target>${java.version}</target>
 				</configuration>
 			</plugin>
 			<plugin>