How much does a landscaping crew cost per hour in San Diego?

Using the BLS San Diego median wage of $21.90 an hour and an assumed 2 to 3 times burden, one worker-hour bills at about $43.80 to $65.70. A three-person crew at the median therefore runs about $131.40 to $197.10 per crew-hour. These are derived estimates, not quotes. Adding a supervisor-level lead at $46.08 an hour wage raises the crew-hour range to about $179.88 to $269.82 before materials.

Is a $65 per hour landscaper rate in San Diego fair?

As a per-worker-hour figure it sits at the top of the derived range for a median-wage worker, which is $65.70 at a 3 times burden. It is plausible for a firm with heavy overhead. It is high if the quote is per crew-hour, because three workers at a 2 times burden would come to $131.40. Ask whether the rate is per person or per crew, and what the burden multiplier covers.

How much more do San Diego landscaping workers earn than the national average?

BLS reports a San Diego median of $21.90 an hour against a US median of $18.82, a gap of $3.08 or 16.4 percent. At the 25th percentile the gap is $1.15 or 6.6 percent, and at the 75th percentile it is $0.83 or 3.7 percent. The gap is widest in the middle of the pay scale, so a San Diego crew costs more mainly because typical wages are higher.

Why is the price I am quoted so much higher than the BLS wage?

The BLS figure is what a worker is paid per hour. A bid also has to cover payroll taxes, workers' compensation, liability insurance, vehicles, fuel, tools, office time, warranty reserve and profit. A 2 to 3 times multiplier on the wage is the usual working assumption for small residential contractors, so a $21.90 wage becomes $43.80 to $65.70 per billed hour. The multiplier is an assumption, not a measured figure.

Do rising paving and concrete prices change the crew rate?

No. The crew rate comes from wages. Materials are a separate line. BLS producer price indexes show paving mixtures and blocks up 7.1 percent and concrete products up 4.2 percent over twelve months to September 2026. Those are index changes, not dollar prices, but they tell you which line of a hardscape quote is more likely to have moved since last year.

Landscaping Crew Hourly Rates in San Diego, Compared

A San Diego landscaping crew member is paid a median $21.90 an hour, but a homeowner is billed roughly $43.80 to $65.70 per worker-hour after a 2 to 3 times burden assumption. A three-person crew therefore runs about $131 to $197 per crew-hour. These figures are derived arithmetic, not quotes, and exclude materials, permits, disposal and difficulty.

Key points

The BLS median wage for landscaping and groundskeeping workers in San Diego is $21.90 an hour, which is $3.08 or 16.4 percent above the US median of $18.82.
Under an assumed 2 to 3 times burden, one median-wage worker-hour bills at $43.80 to $65.70, and a three-person crew-hour bills at $131.40 to $197.10.
A worked eight-hour job with three median-wage workers and a $600 material allowance comes to $1,651.20 to $2,176.80 before permits, disposal and difficulty premiums.
Swapping one worker for a supervisor-level lead at $46.08 an hour raises that same job to $2,038.08 to $2,757.12.
Paving mixtures and blocks prices (PPI) are up 7.1 percent over twelve months, so hardscape material lines deserve more scrutiny than labor lines.

A person operating a lawnmower in a shaded, grassy yard, in black and white.

What do BLS wages say landscaping workers earn in San Diego?

The BLS Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics (OEWS) data puts the San Diego median for landscaping and groundskeeping workers at $21.90 an hour. This section reports what the source says. The next sections build estimates from it.

A white dog stands alert in a garden while a person mows the lawn on a sunny day.

The occupation is Landscaping and Groundskeeping Workers (SOC 37-3011), survey year 2025, from the BLS OEWS series for San Diego, CA (series ID OEUM004174000000037301108). The data supplied for this article was pulled on 2026-11-13. The figures are wages paid to workers, in dollars per hour. They are not prices billed to customers. For a general description of the occupation, its duties and entry requirements, see the BLS Occupational Outlook Handbook profile.

Area	25th percentile	Median	75th percentile	Mean	Employed
United States	$17.40	$18.82	$22.52	$20.33	952,640
California statewide	$18.47	$21.90	$24.27	$22.80	106,180
San Diego, CA	$18.55	$21.90	$23.35	$22.14	10,870

Source: BLS OEWS, survey year 2025, hourly wages paid to workers.

Three things stand out. First, San Diego and California statewide have the same median, $21.90, so a San Diego crew is not unusual for the state. Second, San Diego’s 75th percentile ($23.35) is lower than California’s ($24.27) by $0.92, or 3.8 percent, so the top of the local pay range is not especially high. Third, the spread inside San Diego, from $18.55 to $23.35, is $4.80, or 25.9 percent of the 25th percentile wage. That spread matters because a crew of experienced workers and a crew of newer workers can legitimately cost different amounts.

San Diego accounts for 10,870 of California’s 106,180 workers in this occupation, about 10.2 percent. That is a large enough group that the figures are not drawn from a handful of employers.

There is one more wage in the data. First-Line Supervisors of Construction Trades and Extraction Workers in San Diego earn a median of $46.08 an hour. This is a construction-trades supervisor figure, not a landscaping-specific one, so this article uses it only as a proxy for a crew lead and flags it as such.

How much higher are San Diego wages than the national figure?

San Diego’s median wage is $3.08 an hour, or 16.4 percent, above the US median. The gap is not the same across the pay scale.

A worker in protective gear using a grass cutter to trim grass, capturing the dynamic action and flying clippings.

Measure	San Diego	United States	Gap in dollars	Gap in percent
25th percentile	$18.55	$17.40	$1.15	6.6%
Median	$21.90	$18.82	$3.08	16.4%
Mean	$22.14	$20.33	$1.81	8.9%
75th percentile	$23.35	$22.52	$0.83	3.7%

Gap in percent is the dollar gap divided by the US figure. Calculated from the BLS figures above.

The pattern is that the middle of the San Diego distribution is well above the national middle, while both ends are close to national levels. For a homeowner, the practical reading is that you should expect a typical San Diego crew to cost roughly one sixth more in wages than a typical US crew. You should not expect a premium of that size if the contractor is using the lowest-paid or the highest-paid workers.

Because the wage is only one input into a bill, the percent gap in a final price is not guaranteed to match the wage gap. If every other input were identical, a 16.4 percent wage gap would produce a 16.4 percent labor gap. Fuel, insurance, vehicle and yard costs differ by location in ways this data does not measure.

Why is a wage not the price a homeowner pays?

A homeowner pays the wage multiplied by a burden and overhead factor, because the wage is only the portion that goes to the worker. The rest of the bill covers payroll taxes, workers’ compensation, liability insurance, vehicles, fuel, tools, office time, warranty reserve and profit.

This article applies a multiplier of 2 to 3 times the wage. That range is a working assumption commonly used for small residential contractors. It is not a measured figure, and the BLS data does not contain it. A contractor with a lean operation might sit below it. A firm carrying a showroom, a large fleet or a long warranty might sit above it. Treat the multiplier as the number you are most entitled to argue with.

A useful way to hold it: at 2 times, every wage dollar is matched by one dollar of everything else. At 3 times, every wage dollar is matched by two. A bid that implies a multiplier far outside 2 to 3 is not necessarily wrong, but it should come with an explanation.

What does one worker-hour and one crew-hour cost the homeowner?

At the San Diego median wage, one worker-hour bills at $43.80 to $65.70, and three workers together bill at $131.40 to $197.10 per hour. The table shows the derived rate per worker-hour at three burden multipliers.

Wage basis	Hourly wage	Billed at 2.0x	Billed at 2.5x	Billed at 3.0x
San Diego 25th percentile	$18.55	$37.10	$46.38	$55.65
San Diego median	$21.90	$43.80	$54.75	$65.70
San Diego mean	$22.14	$44.28	$55.35	$66.42
San Diego 75th percentile	$23.35	$46.70	$58.38	$70.05
United States median	$18.82	$37.64	$47.05	$56.46

Assumption: the 2.0, 2.5 and 3.0 multipliers are working assumptions, not measured. Results are rounded to the cent.

For a three-person crew at the San Diego median, multiply the worker-hour figures by three: $131.40 at 2.0x, $164.25 at 2.5x and $197.10 at 3.0x per crew-hour. The same crew at the US median wage would bill $112.92, $141.15 and $169.38 under the same multipliers. At 2.0x the San Diego crew-hour is $18.48 higher, which is the same 16.4 percent gap as the wage.

If a bidder tells you a rate is “per hour” without saying per person or per crew, the answer can differ by a factor of three. This is the most common source of confusion when comparing quotes.

How do you build a full-day landscaping job from these wages?

A one-day job with three median-wage workers and a $600 material allowance comes to $1,651.20 to $2,176.80 under a 2 to 3 times burden. Every input below is an assumption for illustration, and each is on its own line so you can change it.

Inputs

Crew: three workers paid the San Diego median of $21.90 an hour (BLS).
Hours: eight hours on site each, so 24 labor-hours. This is an assumption.
Burden multiplier: 2.0 low, 2.5 middle, 3.0 high. This is an assumption.
Material allowance: $600 for plants, base material, soil amendment or edging. This is an assumption, not a price from any source.
Excluded: permits, disposal, equipment rental, access, season and emergency premiums.

Step	Calculation	Low (2.0x)	Middle (2.5x)	High (3.0x)
Labor-hours	3 workers × 8 hours	24	24	24
Wage cost	24 × $21.90	$525.60	$525.60	$525.60
Billed labor	wage cost × burden	$1,051.20	$1,314.00	$1,576.80
Materials	assumed allowance	$600.00	$600.00	$600.00
Estimated total	billed labor + materials	$1,651.20	$1,914.00	$2,176.80

Illustrative calculation. It is not an observed price and it is not a quote.

The same job at the US median wage of $18.82 has a wage cost of $451.68 (24 × $18.82) and billed labor of $903.36 at 2.0x and $1,355.04 at 3.0x. San Diego’s billed labor is $147.84 higher at 2.0x and $221.76 higher at 3.0x. In both cases that is the 16.4 percent wage gap carried through. The material allowance is held the same in both places, because this article has no San Diego versus national materials price to use.

What changes if one worker is a crew lead?

A crew with a supervisor-level lead costs more because the lead’s wage is higher. Using the $46.08 median for first-line construction supervisors in San Diego as a proxy, and keeping two workers at $21.90:

Step	Calculation	Low (2.0x)	Middle (2.5x)	High (3.0x)
Lead wage	8 hours × $46.08	$368.64	$368.64	$368.64
Worker wage	16 hours × $21.90	$350.40	$350.40	$350.40
Total wage cost	lead + workers	$719.04	$719.04	$719.04
Billed labor	wage cost × burden	$1,438.08	$1,797.60	$2,157.12
Materials	assumed allowance	$600.00	$600.00	$600.00
Estimated total	billed labor + materials	$2,038.08	$2,397.60	$2,757.12

The lead raises the total by $386.88 at 2.0x and $580.32 at 3.0x. Whether that is worth paying depends on the job. A crew doing a simple cleanup does not need a supervisor. A drainage fix or irrigation change might. The point is that a quote with a lead built in should show the lead’s hours separately.

How sensitive is the answer to hours and wage level?

The answer moves most with hours and with where on the pay scale the crew sits. The labor-only results below hold the crew at three workers and the burden at 2.0 to 3.0 times.

Scenario	Labor-hours	Wage cost	Billed labor (2.0x to 3.0x)
25th percentile wage, 8 hours	24	$445.20	$890.40 to $1,335.60
Median wage, 6 hours	18	$394.20	$788.40 to $1,182.60
Median wage, 8 hours	24	$525.60	$1,051.20 to $1,576.80
Median wage, 10 hours	30	$657.00	$1,314.00 to $1,971.00
75th percentile wage, 8 hours	24	$560.40	$1,120.80 to $1,681.20

Illustrative calculation from BLS wages and the assumed burden range.

Two hours more or fewer on a three-person job moves billed labor by about $263 to $394 at median wages. Moving from the 25th to the 75th percentile wage at eight hours moves it by $230.40 to $345.60. Material and permit differences can easily exceed either, so do not over-read the labor line. Each extra $100 of materials adds $100 to the total before any markup. This calculation applies no markup to materials, so a contractor who marks them up will land above these totals.

Do rising materials prices change the crew rate?

No. The crew rate comes from wages. Materials are a separate line, and the BLS Producer Price Index (PPI) is the right federal source for the direction of travel.

According to the BLS Producer Price Index series for paving mixtures and blocks (WPU1394), the index stood at 432.695 in September 2026 against 403.862 a year earlier, up 7.1 percent over twelve months. The concrete products series (WPU133) was 410.255 against 393.678, up 4.2 percent. The base is 1982 = 100.

These are index points, not dollars. You cannot read a price per square foot of pavers from them. They are also producer prices, not what a homeowner pays at a retail counter or through a contractor’s markup. What the index can tell you is direction and rate: hardscape-type materials have been rising, and paving-type goods faster than concrete products.

As a purely illustrative check, if the $600 material allowance above were entirely paving-type goods and moved exactly with the index, a 7.1 percent rise would be $42.60, and a 4.2 percent rise on concrete-type goods would be $25.20. Real contractor pricing does not follow a producer index that neatly, so use this only to see that the scale is small compared with the labor line on a modest job. On a large hardscape project with thousands of dollars of material, the same percentages matter more.

What can this calculation not see?

It cannot see anything that is not a wage, a burden multiplier or a material allowance. A real quote can differ from these totals for reasons outside this data.

Permits and inspections. Some work needs a permit and the fee depends on the jurisdiction and scope. None is included here.
Disposal. Hauling green waste, old sod, soil or demolished hardscape is billed separately by many firms. None is included.
Code upgrades. Drainage, retaining walls, irrigation backflow or electrical for lighting can trigger requirements that add scope.
Access. A narrow side yard with no equipment access means more hand labor. A steep lot means slower work and more hours than the eight assumed here.
Difficulty. Slope, soil conditions, root removal, tree work and existing irrigation all affect hours. The analogue of roof pitch in roofing is slope in landscaping.
Season. Demand changes through the year, and the BLS wage data is an annual survey, so it does not show seasonal swings.
Emergency call-outs. Storm damage or same-day requests commonly carry a premium. This data contains none.
Equipment. Rentals, trenchers, skid steers and similar equipment are not in the wage or the burden range unless the contractor owns them and recovers cost through overhead.
Contractor mix. The OEWS wage covers workers in the occupation across many employers. A particular firm may pay above or below it.

The right way to use the totals is as a reasonableness check on the structure of a bid, not as a prediction of its final number.

How do you read a real quote against these numbers?

Convert the quote into hours, crew size and materials, then compare the implied billed rate per worker-hour with the $43.80 to $65.70 median-wage range. If the quote does not give you enough to do that, that is the first finding.

Ask for these items to be itemised:

Labor, shown as hours and crew size. “Three workers, eight hours” is checkable. “Labor: $2,400” is not.
Materials, listed separately, with quantities and unit costs where possible, and any markup stated.
Equipment and rentals.
Disposal and hauling.
Permits and fees, and who pulls them.
Any lead or supervisor time, shown apart from general labor.
Contingency, if any, with the condition that triggers it.

Then divide the labor line by total labor-hours. If the result is well above $65.70 per worker-hour at median wages, or above roughly $70.05 even using the San Diego 75th percentile wage at 3.0 times, the bid is carrying either a high burden, premium labor or padding.

The single question that exposes a padded bid is: “What is the hourly rate per person, how many hours are you assuming, and what is included in that rate?” A contractor with a real estimate can answer in one breath. A padded bid tends to produce a lump sum with no hours behind it.

A fair bid can still sit outside these ranges. A high-end design firm, a licensed specialist or a firm with a long warranty may justify more. The test is that the premium has a reason you can name, not that it matches a federal average.

What should you check before signing?

Check that the quote’s structure matches your job and that its numbers can be traced. Before you sign:

Confirm the scope in writing, including what is excluded such as disposal, permits and irrigation repair.
Confirm whether the rate is per person or per crew, and the number of workers.
Compare the implied per worker-hour rate with $43.80 to $65.70 at the San Diego median wage, and understand any gap.
Get materials itemised and ask whether the contractor marks them up.
Ask how a change order is priced, including the hourly rate for extra work.
Ask whether the work needs a permit and who is responsible for it.
Get two or three bids built the same way so you can compare hours, rates and materials separately.
Keep the payment schedule tied to completed work rather than a large up-front deposit.

This site does not perform landscaping work, inspect properties, survey contractors or collect quotes. Everything above is arithmetic on federal wage and price data, with the assumptions stated so that you can change them.