What Landscaping Rates Should a US Crew Charge in 2026?

Published landscaping rates in the USA run about $50 to $100 an hour for a two-person crew. A recurring mow on a quarter-acre lot runs $45 to $85, and full-service care on a small yard $100 to $400 a month. Those are HomeGuide’s consumer figures, updated in February 2026. However, Angi’s pricing advice for lawn pros (July 2026) gives $50 to $90 an hour per operator, not per crew. For a crew of two, that basis roughly doubles the number. So check which unit a figure uses before you match it, and start your own rate from what one crew hour costs you. Licensing rules vary by state, and California and Florida get detail below.

Per person or per crew? Read the hourly figure first

HomeGuide’s landscaping cost page (February 4, 2026) quotes $50 to $100 an hour for a two-person crew, or $25 to $50 per person. Its lawn care page gives $40 to $80 an hour for yard work for each crew member. Angi’s landscaping cost page (updated September 23, 2026) lists “Landscaper: $50–$100 per hour” without saying how many people that buys.

These sites are lead-generation businesses that publish estimated prices for homeowners. They are not surveys of what landscapers actually bill. Even so, your customer may have read one before calling you. When a homeowner says another company charges $50 an hour, ask whether that was one person or a crew of two. Then decide whether to match it. Our piece on why the lowest price rarely wins makes the case for holding your number.

Build one crew hour from what it costs you

First, federal wage data give you the labor inputs. The Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics (OEWS) program is the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics’ employer survey of pay by occupation and area. It is a statistical reference, not a pay rule, and it covers employees only. Its May 2025 estimates, released in May 2026, put the national median for landscaping and groundskeeping workers at $18.82 an hour. First-line supervisors of landscaping workers earned a median of $28.09 an hour.

Now take a hypothetical two-person crew: you running the crew, plus one employee. Apart from the two BLS wages, every input below is an assumption, so replace each one with your own figure.

1. Your own pay, set at the supervisor median: $28.09 an hour.
2. Your worker at $18.82, plus 18% for payroll taxes, workers’ comp and unemployment insurance: $22.21.
3. Truck, trailer, mowers, fuel, insurance, phone and software at $25 per crew hour. The crew hour now costs $75.30.
4. Billable time at 75% of paid hours, because drive time, loading and quoting earn nothing. Each billable hour therefore costs $100.40.
5. A 10% margin on price: $100.40 ÷ 0.90 comes to about $112 per crew hour, or $56 per person-hour.

The 18% is deliberately lean. BLS’s Employer Costs for Employee Compensation survey measures what employers spend per hour on wages and benefits. In June 2026 it put construction employers’ benefit costs at 43.8% on top of wages. That is a construction figure, not a landscaping one. Still, a crew with health cover or paid time off will sit closer to it. Our guides to workers’ comp rules by state and what a first hire actually costs cover the payroll side.

How the example compares with the guides

The $112 crew hour sits above HomeGuide’s $50 to $100 crew range. Yet at $56 per person, it falls inside Angi’s per-operator range. That is the unit problem again. Among the assumptions, billable time moves the result most. At 85% billable instead of 75%, the same crew hour prices at about $98. In other words, ten more points of billable time, from fewer empty miles between stops, are worth about $13 a crew hour.

Wages also differ sharply by state. In May 2025 the OEWS hourly mean for landscaping workers ran from $16.12 in Mississippi to $24.30 in Massachusetts. California averaged $22.80, Florida $18.80 and Texas $18.27. With Florida’s medians in the same model, the crew hour comes to about $105.

Florida’s floor has just moved, too. The state constitution (Article X, Section 24) sets the Florida minimum wage, and it binds every Florida employer. Under the constitutional schedule, it reached $15.00 an hour on September 30, 2026. In May 2025 the lowest-paid tenth of Florida landscaping workers earned under $14.74. Update the worker line before you price next season’s contracts.

Turning the crew hour into landscaping rates per visit

Once you know the time on site, the crew hour becomes a visit price. Take an illustrative quarter-acre weekly stop that keeps the two-person crew on site for 30 minutes. That is half a crew hour, so about $56 at the example rate. Drive time already sits inside the 75% billable share, so you don’t add it twice.

The $56 stop sits inside HomeGuide’s quarter-acre range and below Angi’s. Other guides spread wider. HomeAdvisor (June 17, 2026) gives $50 to $205 a visit. LawnStarter, which sells mowing through its own platform, reports $43 to $70 (September 9, 2026). Treat these as what your customers may have seen, not as a price list.

A mowing season is 25 to 35 visits, not 52

HomeGuide’s mowing cost page says annual packages typically include 25 to 35 visits per season, depending on the climate. That page dates from April 2023 despite its 2026 title. Even so, its visit count is a safer planning basis than a 52-week year.

At $56 a visit, an illustrative 30-visit season brings in $1,680 from the quarter-acre account. That fits HomeGuide’s annual range of $900 to $2,000. A budget built on 52 visits would have shown $2,912, about 73% more than the account delivers. Meanwhile, the truck and mower costs run all twelve months. So spread your annual equipment costs over the hours you will actually bill. Off-season work fills part of the gap: HomeGuide prices fall cleanups at $150 to $400 and snow removal at $30 to $70 an hour.

One-time, overgrown and full-service pricing

According to HomeGuide, one-time services cost 50% to 100% more than recurring ones. An overgrown lawn costs 1.5 to 3 times the regular rate. On the illustrative $56 stop, that means $84 to $112 for a one-time mow and up to $168 for an overgrown one. Put the one-time price on the estimate beside the seasonal price, so the customer sees what signing up saves.

Full-service plans, by contrast, run by the month. HomeGuide gives $100 to $200 for an eighth of an acre and $200 to $400 for a quarter acre. In its description, full service adds gardening, mulching, fertilizing, aeration, overseeding, cleanups, shrub trimming and pest control to basic mowing. List what your plan includes on the agreement, because the customer will compare that list with a mow-only quote. Two of those items, fertilizing and pest control, can need a state certificate.

Fertilizer and pest control can need a certificate

BLS’s Occupational Outlook Handbook, its career guide to each occupation, notes that most states license workers who apply pesticides. Fertilizer licensing, however, varies by state. Nationally, the EPA’s Certification of Pesticide Applicators rule (40 CFR Part 171) sets minimum standards for anyone using restricted-use pesticides. The states do the certifying, and certification is mandatory for those products.

Florida’s two landscape certificates

Florida adds two certificates of its own, both issued by the Florida Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services (FDACS). Section 482.1562 of the Florida Statutes requires the Limited Certification for Urban Landscape Commercial Fertilizer Application. Since January 1, 2014, anyone applying commercial fertilizer to an urban landscape must hold it. FDACS sets the fee between $25 and $75. The certificate lasts four years, and renewal needs four classroom hours of continuing education.

The second matters only if your crew applies pesticides. The Limited Certification for Commercial Landscape Maintenance (section 482.156) lets maintenance staff treat weeds in plant beds, driveways, sidewalks and patios. Holders may also use low-toxicity pesticides on ornamental plants, with hand-held or backpack sprayers only. However, pesticides on turf, or running a pest control business, fall outside it. Restricted-use pesticides outdoors need a separate pesticide applicator license under Chapter 487 of the Florida Statutes.

For a Florida full-service plan, the practical step is simple. If no one on the crew holds the fertilizer certificate, leave fertilizing off the plan until someone does.

Install pricing and California’s $1,000 license line

Price project work from measured quantities, with materials and labor on separate lines. HomeGuide puts new sod at $1 to $2 per square foot installed (October 31, 2025). It prices a 5 × 12 ft flower bed at $1,200 to $4,000, with a custom raised bed at the top (December 23, 2025). For irrigation, its dedicated page (February 3, 2026) quotes $600 to $2,000 per zone. Quote sprinklers per zone, so the customer sees what one more zone adds. If material prices move before the start date, our piece on rising material costs covers escalation wording.

California: when a landscaping job needs a C-27 license

In California, the Contractors State License Board (CSLB), part of the state Department of Consumer Affairs, licenses contractors. Its C-27 Landscaping Contractor class covers anyone who “constructs, maintains, repairs, installs, or subcontracts” landscape systems. A license is mandatory unless the minor-work exemption in Business and Professions Code section 7048 applies. In its current text, effective January 1, 2026, that exemption needs two things. The whole project must total less than $1,000, and it must need no building permit.

For example, a 5 × 12 ft bed at HomeGuide’s low end of $1,200 is already over the line. Splitting one project into smaller contracts to stay under $1,000 does not help. Advertising as a contractor also removes the exemption, and so does employing anyone on the work. As a result, the two-person crew in this article’s example would not qualify at any price. So before a California install quote goes out, check the crew’s license status as well as the total. Other states set their own rules, which our state-by-state licensing overview summarizes.

Updated October 2026: new BLS wages, dated prices with their per-person or per-crew basis, a 25–35 visit season, and Florida and California licensing rules.