Guides
Wages and labour costs for a lawn care business in 2027
Lawn care wages for 2027, with real pay ranges, the loaded cost per productive hour, payroll taxes, and the paid time that never reaches a property.
What to take away
- Wages and labor costs for a lawn care business in 2027 start near $18 to $26 an hour for a crew member, and $50,000 to $70,000 a year for a working crew leader, before employer taxes.
- The rate is not the cost. Add employer FICA at 7.65%, unemployment tax, workers compensation, and paid hours that never reach a property.
- Divide total employment cost by productive field hours, not hours paid. On a spread route the two diverge fast.
- Pay structure decides behavior. Hourly suits most crews; per-stop pay invites skipped departure walks.
- Recompute the loaded figure whenever crew size, route density or season changes.
A $20 hourly rate is not a $20 cost. Employer taxes, insurance, paid drive time and training push the hour of work actually done on a property past $30.
That gap drives every number in this article. It also explains why a rate copied from a neighboring company rarely survives contact with your own route.
What lawn care pay looks like going into 2027
The Bureau of Labor Statistics files mowing and grounds maintenance work under occupation code 37-3011. The BLS OEWS tables publish wage estimates by state and metro area, and they are the cleanest public starting point.
2027 Lawn Care Pay Bands
- $16-$19Entry crew member hourly
- $19-$23Experienced crew member hourly
- $23-$28Crew leader who mows hourly
- $28-$34Working foreman hourly
Median pay for that code has sat near $17 to $18 an hour in recent national releases. For 2027 planning, treat the table below as illustrative ranges rather than published figures.
| Role | 2027 planning range, hourly | 2027 planning range, annual, full time | Where the number comes from |
|---|---|---|---|
| Entry crew member, first season | $16 to $19 | $33,000 to $40,000 | BLS OEWS, occupation 37-3011 |
| Experienced crew member | $19 to $23 | $40,000 to $48,000 | Indeed and ZipRecruiter local averages |
| Crew leader who still mows | $23 to $28 | $48,000 to $58,000 | State labor department wage data |
| Working foreman or operations lead | $28 to $34 | $58,000 to $71,000 | Open postings in your own metro |
Two forces set where you land inside those bands. One is your state: Texas, Florida and much of the Southeast run below the national median for this work, while Ohio, Illinois and the Northeast run above it.
The second is season length. A northern crew works roughly April through November, so the annual figure is compressed into fewer weeks.
Government wage floors sit far below all of it. The federal minimum has been $7.25 since 2009. Washington's indexed state minimum reached $16.66 in 2025, the highest state floor, and it climbs each year.
Check your own metro before you set anything. A rate that hires well in Dallas or Atlanta can be a vacancy in Seattle or Denver.
The loaded cost of a productive hour
Define these for your operation:
Loaded Cost Per Productive Hour
(Wg + Te + Ib + Tr) / Hf
Denominator is Hf, not Hp
Payroll taxes near 10% of gross
Workers comp higher than office work
- Wg, gross pay for the period.
- Te, employer taxes and mandated contributions.
- Ib, insurance and benefits attributable to that person.
- Tr, training and induction cost spread across the season.
- Hp, hours paid in the period.
- Hf, hours in the period actually spent working on customer properties.
Loaded cost per productive hour is Wg plus Te plus Ib plus Tr, divided by Hf. The denominator is Hf, not Hp, and that single choice is what makes the number honest.
Payroll taxes land near 10% of gross for most small employers. Social Security and Medicare take 7.65% on the employer side, and the Social Security wage base sits above $170,000, so it never caps a crew wage.
Federal unemployment runs 0.6% of the first $7,000 of wages, about $42 per employee a year, after the normal credit. New employer state rates commonly run 0.3% to 4%, on a wage base from $7,000 in Florida to more than $60,000 in Washington.
Workers compensation is the biggest swing. Grounds and garden work sits under classification code 0042 in most state manuals, and rates commonly run $3 to $10 per $100 of payroll depending on state and claims history.
| One full-time crew member, 45 weeks | Typical figure |
|---|---|
| Gross pay, 1,800 paid hours at $20 | $36,000 |
| FICA at 7.65% | $2,754 |
| FUTA at 0.6% of the first $7,000 | $42 |
| State unemployment at 2.7% of a $7,000 base | $189 |
| Workers compensation at $5 per $100 of payroll | $1,800 |
| Training and induction | $600 |
| Total employment cost | about $41,400 |
| Productive hours, 70% of paid time | 1,260 |
| Loaded cost per productive hour | about $33 |
Drop the same person to a 55% productive rate and the loaded hour lands near $42. That is what a spread route does to a pay rate.
Where the paid but unproductive hours go
List these for your own operation and measure them for two weeks.
Productive Share of Paid Hours
- 75%Dense route
- 60%Spread route
- Yard time at the start and end of the day.
- Drive from the yard to the first stop and back from the last.
- Drive between stops.
- Setup and pack-down at each property.
- Weather waits and rescheduling.
- Machine faults and roadside repair.
- Training and induction for new people.
ClockShark and Jobber record paid hours and on-site hours as separate figures, which is what makes the split visible. ClockShark lists GPS time tracking at roughly $20 to $40 per user a month, and Jobber's entry plan sits near $39 a month billed annually.
On a dense route, Hf can be 75% or more of Hp. On a spread route it can fall under 60%. That difference is why density is a labor lever as much as a fuel one, and the territory reasoning sits in the expansion and market guide.
Reading the local market
The BLS tables describe the market you compete in for people. They are one input, not a rate you are obliged to pay or entitled to pay less than.
The Department of Labor guidance for new and small businesses covers wage and hour duties, including how travel and waiting time are treated for pay. It also notes that state law may give workers additional rights.
The federal Wage and Hour Division runs a free helpline at 1-866-487-9243 for exactly this question. Travel time rules vary by state, so ask your state labor department too. Getting it wrong is expensive.
Pay structures, and what each one produces
What it encourages
- Hourly
- Steady work, honest reporting of long properties
- Hourly plus completion bonus
- Finishing the route inside its hours
- Per stop
- Speed
- Salary for a crew leader
- Ownership of the day
- Seasonal retention payment
- Staying to the end of the season
What it risks
- Hourly
- Little pressure to finish a day on time
- Hourly plus completion bonus
- Cut corners at the last stops
- Per stop
- Quality misses and skipped departure walks
- Salary for a crew leader
- Long weeks in peak season if hours are not watched
- Seasonal retention payment
- Little, if the terms are clear
Where it fits
- Hourly
- Most crews, most of the time
- Hourly plus completion bonus
- Mature crews with inspection in place
- Per stop
- Rarely a good fit for a quality-sensitive route
- Salary for a crew leader
- Leaders, once the role is defined
- Seasonal retention payment
- The off-season attrition problem
Any structure other than plain hourly carries overtime and minimum pay implications that differ by state. Confirm it with your state labor department before you offer it.
Total labor cost for a crew day
Crew day labor cost equals the loaded hourly figure, summed across everyone on the truck, multiplied by the hours in the day. Divide that by stops completed and you have labor cost per stop, which is the number that belongs in a price.
Crew Day Labor Cost Per Stop
- Loaded hourly figure per person
- Sum across everyone on the truck
- Multiply by hours in the day
- Divide by stops completed
- Result: labor cost per stop
Two people, eight hours each, at the loaded $33 an hour: about $528 for the day. Twenty stops on a dense route puts labor near $26 a stop.
The same pair on a spread route carries a loaded cost near $42 an hour. Sixteen person-hours is $672, and 14 stops work out to about $48 a stop.
Two things this reveals that a headline rate never does:
- A second person on a dense route can lower labor cost per stop, because on-site time falls and the drive is shared.
- The same person on a spread route raises it, because the extra pay buys little reduction in drive.
Costs attached to people that are not pay
- Protective equipment, replaced on a schedule rather than when it fails. Safety glasses, hearing protection and trimmer chaps typically run $60 to $150 per person a season.
- Training time, including the safety induction that precedes any field work, which is paid working time.
- Consistent treatment of every person you employ, which the EEOC small business resource center covers for small employers.
- Certification and continuing education where a role includes applications, administered by your state and covered in the licensing and compliance guide.
- Turnoverrecruiting and bringing a replacement up the training ladder set out for this trade. Measure it once and it will change how you think about retention.
Replacing a trained field employee typically runs $1,500 to $4,000 once advertising, onboarding and lost route time are counted. Sponsored listings on Indeed and ZipRecruiter are only the visible part of that bill.
The machine side interacts with all of this, because a mower that halves on-site time changes Hf directly. That relationship is set out in the equipment and setup guide.
When to recompute
- After any change in crew size.
- After a change to the route boundary or the day pattern.
- At the season boundary, when the mix of peak and shoulder weeks changes.
- After a machine change that alters on-site time.
Payroll software makes the recompute cheap. Gusto lists its simple payroll plan near $40 a month plus about $6 per employee, and Homebase bundles scheduling, time tracking and payroll for hourly teams. ADP and Paychex sell the same service to larger crews.
The selection process that determines who you are paying is in the article on hiring reliable crew.
Common questions
What should I pay in 2027?
Start with the ranges above, then check your metro against the BLS tables. If the market rate and what your route can carry do not meet, treat it as a pricing or density problem rather than a pay problem.
Is paying above market worth it?
Sometimes, and the test is turnover cost. If a higher rate keeps a trained person through a second season, compare that against recruiting and training a replacement, which usually costs more than owners expect.
How should travel time be paid?
That is a legal question with state-specific answers. Ask your state labor department, or the federal Wage and Hour helpline at 1-866-487-9243, rather than following what is customary locally.
Do bonuses work?
They work when tied to something the person controls and when quality is inspected independently. A bonus for finishing early, with no inspection, buys exactly what it pays for.
