Here is the root cause of java 1.5:
Also note that at present the default source setting is 1.5 and the default target setting is 1.5, independently of the JDK you run Maven with. If you want to change these defaults, you should set source and target.
Reference : Apache Mavem Compiler Plugin
Following are the details:
Plain pom.xml
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<project xmlns="http://maven.apache.org/POM/4.0.0"
xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance"
xsi:schemaLocation="http://maven.apache.org/POM/4.0.0
http://maven.apache.org/xsd/maven-4.0.0.xsd">
<modelVersion>4.0.0</modelVersion>
<groupId>com.pluralsight</groupId>
<artifactId>spring_sample</artifactId>
<version>1.0-SNAPSHOT</version>
</project>
Following plugin is taken from an expanded POM version(Effective POM),
This can be get by this command from the command line C:\mvn help:effective-pom
I just put here a small snippet instead of an entire pom.
<plugin>
<artifactId>maven-compiler-plugin</artifactId>
<version>3.1</version>
<executions>
<execution>
<id>default-compile</id>
<phase>compile</phase>
<goals>
<goal>compile</goal>
</goals>
</execution>
<execution>
<id>default-testCompile</id>
<phase>test-compile</phase>
<goals>
<goal>testCompile</goal>
</goals>
</execution>
</executions>
</plugin>
Even here you don't see where is the java version defined, lets dig more...
Download the plugin, Apache Maven Compiler Plugin » 3.1 as its available in jar and open it in any file compression tool like 7-zip
Traverse the jar and findout
plugin.xml
file inside folder
maven-compiler-plugin-3.1.jar\META-INF\maven\
Now you will see the following section in the file,
<configuration>
<basedir implementation="java.io.File" default-value="${basedir}"/>
<buildDirectory implementation="java.io.File" default-value="${project.build.directory}"/>
<classpathElements implementation="java.util.List" default-value="${project.testClasspathElements}"/>
<compileSourceRoots implementation="java.util.List" default-value="${project.testCompileSourceRoots}"/>
<compilerId implementation="java.lang.String" default-value="javac">${maven.compiler.compilerId}</compilerId>
<compilerReuseStrategy implementation="java.lang.String" default-value="${reuseCreated}">${maven.compiler.compilerReuseStrategy}</compilerReuseStrategy>
<compilerVersion implementation="java.lang.String">${maven.compiler.compilerVersion}</compilerVersion>
<debug implementation="boolean" default-value="true">${maven.compiler.debug}</debug>
<debuglevel implementation="java.lang.String">${maven.compiler.debuglevel}</debuglevel>
<encoding implementation="java.lang.String" default-value="${project.build.sourceEncoding}">${encoding}</encoding>
<executable implementation="java.lang.String">${maven.compiler.executable}</executable>
<failOnError implementation="boolean" default-value="true">${maven.compiler.failOnError}</failOnError>
<forceJavacCompilerUse implementation="boolean" default-value="false">${maven.compiler.forceJavacCompilerUse}</forceJavacCompilerUse>
<fork implementation="boolean" default-value="false">${maven.compiler.fork}</fork>
<generatedTestSourcesDirectory implementation="java.io.File" default-value="${project.build.directory}/generated-test-sources/test-annotations"/>
<maxmem implementation="java.lang.String">${maven.compiler.maxmem}</maxmem>
<meminitial implementation="java.lang.String">${maven.compiler.meminitial}</meminitial>
<mojoExecution implementation="org.apache.maven.plugin.MojoExecution">${mojoExecution}</mojoExecution>
<optimize implementation="boolean" default-value="false">${maven.compiler.optimize}</optimize>
<outputDirectory implementation="java.io.File" default-value="${project.build.testOutputDirectory}"/>
<showDeprecation implementation="boolean" default-value="false">${maven.compiler.showDeprecation}</showDeprecation>
<showWarnings implementation="boolean" default-value="false">${maven.compiler.showWarnings}</showWarnings>
<skip implementation="boolean">${maven.test.skip}</skip>
<skipMultiThreadWarning implementation="boolean" default-value="false">${maven.compiler.skipMultiThreadWarning}</skipMultiThreadWarning>
<source implementation="java.lang.String" default-value="1.5">${maven.compiler.source}</source>
<staleMillis implementation="int" default-value="0">${lastModGranularityMs}</staleMillis>
<target implementation="java.lang.String" default-value="1.5">${maven.compiler.target}</target>
<testSource implementation="java.lang.String">${maven.compiler.testSource}</testSource>
<testTarget implementation="java.lang.String">${maven.compiler.testTarget}</testTarget>
<useIncrementalCompilation implementation="boolean" default-value="true">${maven.compiler.useIncrementalCompilation}</useIncrementalCompilation>
<verbose implementation="boolean" default-value="false">${maven.compiler.verbose}</verbose>
<mavenSession implementation="org.apache.maven.execution.MavenSession" default-value="${session}"/>
<session implementation="org.apache.maven.execution.MavenSession" default-value="${session}"/>
</configuration>
Look at the above code and find out the following 2 lines
<source implementation="java.lang.String" default-value="1.5">${maven.compiler.source}</source>
<target implementation="java.lang.String" default-value="1.5">${maven.compiler.target}</target>
Good luck.