Landscape Labor Rate Benchmark Report

Labor Rate Benchmark Report for the Landscape Industry (2026 Update)

At SynkedUP, we build company budgets with thousands of landscape contractors. Every budget answers the same question: what man-hour price (aka labor rate) do you need to charge to recover your overhead and make a profit? Down to the penny.

We first published these benchmarks in 2023. A lot has changed since then. Crew wages are up. Insurance is up. Equipment costs more. If you are still charging your 2023 rate in 2026, you are quietly giving away margin on every single job.

Here is where man-hour prices are landing in 2026, and what moved them.

*These man-hour price ranges are based on companies that do both installation and recurring maintenance work. Very few companies that only do recurring maintenance are included.
**Equipment depreciation is being accounted for and recovered in these man-hour rates.

What changed since 2023

Labor got more expensive. A lot more expensive, once you stack up three years of it.

• The median hourly wage for landscaping and groundskeeping workers rose from $17.96 in May 2023 to $18.31 in May 2024, and the average wage rose from $19.13 to $19.66, per the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. That is a 2.8% jump in the average wage in one year.
• Private industry wages and salaries kept climbing 3.3% to 3.4% per year through early 2026, per the BLS Employment Cost Index.
• Billable rates followed. Techo-Bloc’s 2026 landscaping cost report, built on input from more than 800 contractors, puts landscape construction crews at $50 to $120 per hour, with those rates covering overhead, equipment, insurance, payroll taxes, and profit. General 2-person maintenance crews sit at the $50 to $65 low end. Design and consultation runs $75 to $150 and up. Continued upward pressure is expected as the skilled labor pool tightens.
• Your crew’s wages went up whether you raised your prices or not. The real question is who pays for that increase: your customer, or you.

Bottom Tier: $65-$75 per man-hour

Out of all the company budgets we have built, very rarely can the man-hour rate drop below the bottom of this range and still allow the company to make a profit. In 2023, the floor was $60. With three years of wage growth behind us, it is now around $65.

Usually, companies that fall in this tier are in the start-up phase and have not yet accumulated a lot of equipment or overhead expenses.

There is no glory in this phase. Less equipment and less overhead are usually signs of less business infrastructure. Without that infrastructure, a lot of weight falls on the owner’s shoulders to keep the business going. Those owners are often overworked, underpaid, and trying to handle fieldwork along with the admin work of running the business.

Middle Tier: $75-$100 per man-hour

This is the “average” range for landscape companies that do both design/build installation and recurring maintenance. Companies that only do recurring maintenance tend to average a little lower.

This range usually provides enough cash flow to properly recover overhead, pay the owner, and still allow the business to earn a profit. A lot of $500k to $2m revenue businesses fall in this tier.

Want to see the math on why the floor of this tier sits where it does? Take a crew member with $33.33/hour in true direct labor cost, add $24.44/hour in overhead recovery, and you are at $57.77 breakeven before you have earned a dime. Add a 15% net profit margin and you are at $67.96. That is a lean operation. Most established companies carry more overhead than that.

Top Tier: $100-$145 per man-hour

A lot of high-end design/build companies fall in this tier. They usually have a lot of expensive equipment, dramatically boosting efficiency. Compared to businesses in the middle tier, businesses in this tier can get the same amount, or more, production done, with fewer employees.

Smaller crews generate fewer billable man-hours to recover the overhead and higher equipment expenses, which in return requires a higher per man-hour rate.

A lot of 3-7 man companies with tilt-rotators, mini skids, and perfectly set up trucks, tend to fall in this tier.

As companies grow beyond the 3-7 man team size, they tend to become more efficient without increasing overhead expenses at the same rate. That actually lowers man-hour rates, because there are more team members while overhead has not grown in the same proportion.

Why did every tier move up?

Because your costs did. The wage data above only covers what shows up on the paycheck. The true cost of employing someone is generally about 20% or more above the wage, once you add payroll taxes, insurance, benefits, and overtime. A $50,000/year employee really costs closer to $60,000. When wages rise, that burden rises right along with them… and so does the man-hour rate required by your budget.

We updated the 2023 tiers using the documented wage growth above: roughly 10% cumulative from 2023 to 2026, rounded to the nearest $5. The tier logic has not changed. The floor just moved.

Curious what your labor rate should be?

We have a quick-and-dirty labor rate pricing tool you can use for free to see what your labor rate should be priced at. Your budget, your overhead, your profit goal. Down to the penny.

Try the Free AI Labor Rate Calculator for Landscapers. Know Your Numbers. You in?

Where these numbers come from

The 2023 tier ranges came from the company budgets SynkedUP built with hundreds of landscape contractors. The 2026 ranges update those tiers for documented labor cost growth: BLS wage data for landscaping and groundskeeping workers (average hourly wage up 2.8% from May 2023 to May 2024) and the BLS Employment Cost Index (private industry wages up 3.3% to 3.4% per year through Q1 2026), compounding to roughly 10% from 2023 to 2026, rounded to the nearest $5. We cross-checked the result against Techo-Bloc’s 2026 contractor survey of 800+ contractors, which puts landscape construction crew rates at $50 to $120 per hour with design work at $75 to $150 and up.

• U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics, Landscaping and Groundskeeping Workers (37-3011), May 2023: https://www.bls.gov/oes/2023/may/oes373011.htm
• U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, Occupational Employment and Wages news release, Table 1, May 2024: https://www.bls.gov/news.release/ocwage.t01.htm
• U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, Employment Cost Index: https://www.bls.gov/news.release/eci.nr0.htm
• Techo-Bloc, Landscaping Costs in the United States: 2026 Overview: https://www.techo-bloc.com/landscaping-cost-report-usa
• SynkedUP, Finding the Right Landscaping Cost per Hour for Your Business (labor burden and breakeven math): https://synkedup.com/landscaping-cost-per-hour/