Man-hour price benchmark report for landscape industry

At SynkedUP we help hundreds of landscape companies build solid company budgets to figure out their overhead recovery, and what their man-hour price (aka labor rate) works out to, down to the penny.

There are 3 main tiers that man-hour prices are falling into in 2023.

*these man-hour price ranges are based on companies that do both installations and recurring maintenance work. Very few companies that only do recurring maintenance are included in this data.

**Equipment depreciation is being accounted for and recovered in these man-hour rates.

Bottom Tier - $60-$70 per man-hour

Out of all the company budgets we built this year, very rarely can the man-hour rate drop below $60 and still allow the company to make a profit.

Usually, companies that fall in this tier are in the start-up phase and haven’t accumulated a lot of equipment, or a lot of overhead expenses yet.
There’s no glory in this phase though. Less equipment and/or less overhead expenses simply means less of a business infrastructure. Without that business infrastructure, a lot of weight falls on the owner’s shoulders to keep the business going. They often are overworked, trying to do both work out in the field, and all the admin work of running the business.

Middle Tier - $70-$90 per man-hour

This is more the “average” range of man-hour rates for landscape companies that do both design/build installations and recurring maintenance. Companies that only do recurring maintenance tend to average a little lower man-hour rates.

At this $70-$90 range, it 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 – $2m revenue businesses fall in this tier.

Top Tier - $90-$130 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. This allows them to get similar, or more, amounts of production done, with fewer employees. The result of smaller crew companies is: that they need to charge a higher per man-hour rate, as there are fewer billable man-hours to recover the overhead and higher equipment expenses.

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 3-7man team size, they tend to become more efficient without increasing overhead expenses and/or business infrastructure. This has the effect of actually lowering man-hour rates, being there are more team members, while overhead expenses haven’t increased with the same proportions.

Curious on what YOUR man-hour rate should be?

We have a quick n dirty man-hour pricing tool that you can use for free to get close to what your man-hour rate should be priced at.

More Resources

Podcast about these man-hour rates

Weston Zimmerman, CEO of SynkedUP, and Alex Cadieux, director of B2B marketing at Techo Bloc, go deep on this man-hour pricing topic on the Hardscaper Podcast.

Blog about these man-hour rates

Weston Zimmerman, CEO of SynkedUP, digs deeper into this topic, and provides more context around the variables and factors that play into your man-hour rate.

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