How much does a landscaping crew cost per hour in Miami?

A three-worker crew in Miami works out to roughly $108 to $162 per hour billed, before materials. That comes from the BLS median wage of $17.99 per hour for landscaping and groundskeeping workers in Miami, multiplied by three workers to get $53.97 per hour in raw wages, then multiplied by a burden and overhead factor of 2.0 to 3.0. The multiplier covers payroll taxes, workers' compensation, liability insurance, trucks, fuel, equipment, office time and profit. The multiplier is an assumption, not a measured figure.

Are Miami landscapers cheaper than the national average?

Yes, slightly. The BLS 2025 median wage for landscaping and groundskeeping workers is $17.99 per hour in Miami against $18.82 per hour nationally. That is 83 cents less per hour, or 4.4 percent below the national median. At the 75th percentile the gap narrows to 81 cents, $21.71 in Miami against $22.52 nationally, 3.6 percent lower. On a three-worker crew running eight hours, the Miami discount is about $19.92 in raw wage, or roughly $40 to $60 after burden.

Why is my landscaping quote so much higher than the hourly wage?

Because the wage is what the worker is paid and the quote is what the business must charge. The $17.99 per hour Miami median from BLS does not include the employer's share of payroll taxes, workers' compensation for a high-injury-rate outdoor trade, general liability insurance, truck and trailer payments, fuel, mower and blower replacement, unbillable drive time between properties, the office hours spent quoting your job, or profit. Two to three times the wage is the usual working assumption for a small residential contractor.

What is a fair hourly rate for a two-man landscaping crew in Miami?

Roughly $72 to $108 per hour billed, using the Miami median wage of $17.99 per hour. Two workers cost $35.98 per hour in raw wage; at a 2.0 burden multiplier that is $71.96 per hour and at 3.0 it is $107.94 per hour. If a working foreman is one of the two, substitute the Miami supervisor median of $37.28 per hour for one seat, which lifts the raw wage to $55.27 and the billed range to $110 to $166 per hour.

Are landscaping material costs going up in 2026?

Paving materials are rising faster than concrete. The BLS Producer Price Index for paving mixtures and blocks stood at 431.026 in July 2026 against 404.421 a year earlier, up 6.6 percent over twelve months. Concrete products moved from 392.403 to 406.999, up 3.7 percent. These are index points and cannot be converted into dollar prices. They tell you direction only: a paver patio quoted twelve months ago will not hold, and hardscape material escalates faster than the labor line.

What a Landscaping Crew Costs per Hour in Miami

A three-worker landscaping crew in Miami costs roughly $108 to $162 per hour billed, before materials. That figure starts from the federal wage: landscaping and groundskeeping workers in Miami earn a median of $17.99 per hour, so three of them cost $53.97 per hour in raw wage, which a contractor must mark up 2 to 3 times to cover taxes, insurance, trucks and profit. Everything below shows that arithmetic line by line.

Key points

The BLS 2025 median wage for landscaping and groundskeeping workers in Miami is $17.99 per hour, with the 25th percentile at $17.38 and the 75th at $21.71.
Miami sits 4.4 percent below the national median of $18.82 per hour, a gap of 83 cents.
A working foreman changes the math sharply: first-line supervisors of construction trades in Miami earn a median $37.28 per hour, more than double a groundskeeper.
Paving material prices rose 6.6 percent in the twelve months to July 2026 by the BLS producer price index, against 3.7 percent for concrete products.
The burden multiplier of 2.0 to 3.0 used throughout this page is an assumption, not a measured figure. It is the single lever that moves every number here.

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What do landscaping workers in Miami actually earn?

These are wages paid to workers, taken from the BLS Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics survey for Miami, 2025 survey year, occupation code 37-3011. They are not prices billed to homeowners.

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Area	25th pct	Median	75th pct	Mean	Employed
United States	$17.40	$18.82	$22.52	$20.33	952,640
Florida statewide	$17.03	$17.84	$20.99	$18.80	86,040
Miami, FL	$17.38	$17.99	$21.71	$19.28	21,170
Miami supervisor (SOC 47-1011)	—	$37.28	—	—	—

Two things stand out. First, the Miami distribution is compressed at the bottom. The gap between the 25th percentile and the median is 61 cents, against $1.42 nationally. A large share of Miami’s 21,170 groundskeepers are paid within a dollar of each other. Second, the supervisor line is the outlier. A Miami first-line supervisor at $37.28 per hour costs 2.07 times a median groundskeeper. Whether a crew includes a working foreman is the biggest single variable in your quote, bigger than the difference between Miami and the national average.

The occupation itself is described in the BLS Occupational Outlook Handbook entry for grounds maintenance workers, which covers duties and entry requirements.

How does Miami compare to the national figure?

Miami is cheaper, but not by much, and the gap narrows as you move up the skill distribution.

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Percentile	National	Miami	Gap ($)	Gap (%)
25th	$17.40	$17.38	−$0.02	−0.1%
Median	$18.82	$17.99	−$0.83	−4.4%
75th	$22.52	$21.71	−$0.81	−3.6%
Mean	$20.33	$19.28	−$1.05	−5.2%

At the entry level Miami is effectively identical to the national number: two cents apart. The discount only appears at the median and above. Miami also runs above the Florida statewide median of $17.84 by 15 cents, or 0.8 percent.

What does a 4.4 percent wage gap translate to on a real job? On a three-worker crew running an eight-hour day, the raw wage difference is 3 × 8 × $0.83 = $19.92. After a 2.0 to 3.0 burden multiplier that is $39.84 to $59.76 on a day’s work. If someone tells you Miami landscaping is dramatically cheaper than the rest of the country because of the labor market, the federal data does not support it. The gap is under $60 a day on a full crew.

How do you turn a wage into an hourly crew rate?

The wage is what the worker takes home before their own taxes. The rate you are billed has to cover a great deal more. Here is the full build-up for one median Miami worker, one hour.

Line	Amount	Note
Base wage, Miami median	$17.99	BLS OEWS 2025
× burden and overhead, low	2.0	assumption
Billed rate, low	$35.98
× burden and overhead, high	3.0	assumption
Billed rate, high	$53.97

The multiplier is doing all the work here, so be clear about what sits inside it: the employer’s share of Social Security and Medicare, federal and state unemployment tax, workers’ compensation premium for an outdoor trade with a high injury rate, general liability insurance, truck and trailer payments, fuel, mower, trimmer and blower purchase and replacement, blade and string consumables, unbillable drive time between properties, the office hours spent measuring and quoting your job, warranty or callback reserve, and profit. A range of 2 to 3 times the wage is the ordinary working assumption for a small residential contractor. It is an assumption. Nobody measured it for the firm quoting you.

If you want to test a specific bid, ask the contractor what their loaded cost per crew hour is. A firm that runs its own numbers will answer. A firm that cannot will quote a round number and hope.

What does a full crew cost per hour, at every size?

This is the table to find your own row in. Every figure is Miami median wage × crew size × burden multiplier. No materials, no equipment surcharge, no travel.

Crew	Raw wage/hr	@ 2.0×	@ 2.5×	@ 3.0×
1 worker	$17.99	$35.98	$44.98	$53.97
2 workers	$35.98	$71.96	$89.95	$107.94
3 workers	$53.97	$107.94	$134.93	$161.91
4 workers	$71.96	$143.92	$179.90	$215.88
5 workers	$89.95	$179.90	$224.88	$269.85
6 workers	$107.94	$215.88	$269.85	$323.82
2 workers + 1 supervisor	$73.26	$146.52	$183.15	$219.78
3 workers + 1 supervisor	$91.25	$182.50	$228.13	$273.75
4 workers + 1 supervisor	$109.24	$218.48	$273.10	$327.72

The supervisor rows use $37.28 per hour for the foreman seat and $17.99 for each crew member. Note what happens when you add a foreman to a three-worker crew: raw wage goes from $53.97 to $91.25, a 69 percent jump for one extra body. At 2.5× that is $134.93 against $228.13 per hour. If your quote includes a licensed supervisor on site all day for routine mowing and mulching, ask why.

How does crew skill level change the answer?

Two axes here: crew wage percentile and burden multiplier. All rows are a three-worker crew, one hour.

Crew wage level	Raw wage/hr	@ 2.0×	@ 2.5×	@ 3.0×
25th pct ($17.38)	$52.14	$104.28	$130.35	$156.42
Median ($17.99)	$53.97	$107.94	$134.93	$161.91
Mean ($19.28)	$57.84	$115.68	$144.60	$173.52
75th pct ($21.71)	$65.13	$130.26	$162.83	$195.39

The spread across the whole table runs from $104.28 to $195.39 per hour, a factor of 1.87. Note how the multiplier matters more than the wage. Moving from a 25th percentile crew to a 75th percentile crew at a fixed 2.5× multiplier adds $32.48 per hour, 25 percent. Moving from a 2.0× to a 3.0× multiplier at a fixed median wage adds $53.97 per hour, 50 percent. The overhead structure of the firm you hire moves your bill more than the skill of the people who show up. That is why a large firm with a fleet, an office and a dispatcher can be more expensive than a two-truck outfit even when they pay the same crew wage.

What does a full day cost, with materials?

Here is a complete build-up for a common Miami job shape: a three-worker crew, one day, replanting and mulching a front bed. Every line is separately arguable.

Line	Calculation	Amount
Crew size	3 workers	—
Hours on site	8	—
Labor hours	3 × 8	24 hrs
Base wage, Miami median	BLS OEWS 2025	$17.99/hr
Raw wage cost	24 × $17.99	$431.76
Burden multiplier, low	assumption	2.0
Labor billed, low	24 × $17.99 × 2.0	$863.52
Burden multiplier, high	assumption	3.0
Labor billed, high	24 × $17.99 × 3.0	$1,295.28
Material allowance (plants, mulch, soil)	homeowner-set placeholder	$400–$900
Day total, low	$863.52 + $400	$1,263.52
Day total, high	$1,295.28 + $900	$2,195.28

The material allowance is a placeholder you must replace. This site has no plant or mulch price data and will not invent one. Call a local nursery, price the specific plants on your plan, and drop the real number into that line. Everything above the material line is derived from federal wage data and stands on its own.

Reverse the calculation: what does a quoted rate imply?

If a contractor quotes you a flat hourly crew rate, you can work backwards to see what burden multiplier they are running on a three-worker crew at the Miami median wage of $53.97 per hour raw.

Quoted crew rate/hr	Implied multiplier	Read
$75	1.39×	Below plausible burden. Either subcontracted, cash, or the material line is padded.
$100	1.85×	Lean. A small owner-operated outfit with paid-off equipment.
$125	2.32×	Middle of the normal band.
$150	2.78×	Upper normal. Expect a fleet, insurance certificates, a real office.
$175	3.24×	Above the usual band. Ask what is in it.
$200	3.71×	Either a supervisor is on the crew or something is unexplained.
$225	4.17×	Ask for a line-item breakdown before signing.

A $75 crew rate is not a bargain to celebrate. At 1.39× the wage there is not enough left for workers’ compensation and liability insurance on a trade that runs mowers and chainsaws in your yard. Ask for the certificate of insurance.

Are landscaping materials getting more expensive?

Yes, and paving is rising faster than concrete. These figures come from the BLS Producer Price Index series for paving mixtures and blocks. They are index points on a 1982 = 100 base, not dollars, and cannot be converted into a price per square foot.

Material series	July 2025	July 2026	12-month change
Paving mixtures and blocks (WPU1394)	404.421	431.026	+6.6%
Concrete products (WPU133)	392.403	406.999	+3.7%

What this tells you in practice: paving material is escalating at nearly double the rate of concrete products. If you are choosing between a poured concrete patio and a paver installation, the paver material line is moving against you faster. And any hardscape quote written more than a few months ago on paver material has already drifted. Ask for a written expiry date on the material portion of the quote.

It also tells you something about the shape of the bid. On a mow-and-mulch job the labor line dominates and material inflation barely matters. On a paver walkway the material line can exceed labor, and a 6.6 percent annual escalation on that line is the difference worth negotiating, not the crew rate.

Two things homeowners get wrong

Misconception 1: “The worker earns $18 an hour, so $150 an hour for three of them is a rip-off.”

Three workers at the Miami median cost $53.97 per hour in raw wage. At $150 per hour billed, the multiplier is 2.78×. That is inside the normal 2 to 3 band, not above it. The $96 difference is not profit. It covers the employer’s payroll tax share, workers’ compensation on an injury-prone trade, liability coverage, the truck and trailer that got the crew to you, the mower that wears out, and the two hours someone spent measuring your yard and writing the quote for free. Profit is one line inside that gap, and usually a small one.

Misconception 2: “Miami labor is cheap, so I should be paying much less than someone up north.”

The Miami median of $17.99 is 4.4 percent below the national median of $18.82. On a full three-worker day that is $19.92 in raw wage, $40 to $60 billed. It is real but it is not a discount worth structuring a project around. At the 25th percentile the two markets are two cents apart. The federal data does not show Miami as a low-wage outlier for this trade.

When is this estimate wrong?

This calculation sees wages and nothing else. It does not see:

Permits and inspections. Grading, drainage changes, tree removal and irrigation tie-ins can each require a permit in a Miami-Dade municipality. Fees and the waiting time are not in any line above.
Disposal. Hauling old sod, stumps, concrete or bulk green waste is a separate cost driven by dump fees and truck trips, not by crew hours.
Access. A backyard reachable only through a 36-inch side gate forces material in by wheelbarrow. That can double the hours on the same scope without changing the crew rate.
Slope and grade. Terraced or steeply graded ground slows every operation and may require retaining structure that shifts the job from landscaping into hardscape pricing.
Season and weather. Miami’s rainy season creates lost days that a contractor must recover somewhere. Wet-season scheduling and dry-season scheduling are not the same product.
Tree work. Anything requiring climbing, rigging or a bucket truck is a different occupation with different wages and different insurance. The 37-3011 wage above does not apply.
Emergency and storm call-out. Post-storm cleanup demand collapses the normal pricing relationship entirely. None of these figures hold in that window.
Irrigation and electrical. Sprinkler systems and low-voltage lighting bring in licensed trades not covered by the groundskeeper wage.
Soil conditions. Rock, fill, buried debris and old concrete under the turf are discovered after the quote, not before.

If your job involves any of the above, treat the tables here as the labor floor and expect additions, not as a total.

How do you read a real quote against these numbers?

Ask for the bid split into four lines and nothing less: labor hours, material, equipment or disposal, and permits. If it arrives as one number, you cannot check it against anything.

What to look for once it is itemised:

Crew size and hours stated separately. “3 men, 2 days” lets you compute 48 labor hours and test it against the tables above. “Landscaping, $2,400” does not.
Material listed by item and quantity. Plant counts, container sizes, cubic yards of mulch. A single “materials” line is unverifiable, and given the 6.6 percent paving index move it is also the line most likely to have quiet padding.
Equipment and disposal broken out. Dump fees and machine rental are real, but they belong on their own line, not folded into an hourly rate.
Insurance evidence. A certificate of general liability and workers’ compensation. Any bid implying a multiplier under about 1.5× the wage probably lacks one.

The single question that exposes a padded bid: “How many labor hours is this, and what is your billed rate per crew hour?”

A contractor who prices from their own costs answers immediately, because they built the quote from those two numbers. A contractor who picked a figure off the top of their head will change the subject, quote a total again, or tell you it does not work that way. It does work that way. Every bid is hours times a rate plus materials, whether or not it is written down.

Then check the answer against the crew table. Median Miami wage, three-worker crew: $107.94 at 2.0× and $161.91 at 3.0×. If they quote $190 per crew hour with no supervisor on site, the gap needs an explanation and there may be a good one, like specialised equipment or a difficult-access surcharge. Ask for it.

What to check before you sign

Confirm crew size and total labor hours are written on the quote, not just a total price.
Divide the labor total by the labor hours and compare the result to the crew table above. Ask about anything outside $107.94 to $161.91 per hour for a three-worker crew.
Get the certificate of insurance, both liability and workers’ compensation, before work starts.
Ask whether a supervisor is on site full time and whether you are paying for that seat. At $37.28 per hour, it is the most expensive line on the crew.
On any hardscape, get an expiry date on the material portion. Paving materials moved 6.6 percent in twelve months and the quote will not hold indefinitely.
Ask who pulls permits and whether the fee is inside the number or billed on top.
Confirm what happens to debris and whether dump fees are included or estimated.
Ask what the change order rate is for hours beyond the estimate, and get it in writing at the same rate as the base bid.

Every wage figure on this page comes from the federal BLS Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics survey for 2025 and the Producer Price Index through July 2026. No contractors were surveyed, no quotes were collected, and no property was inspected. The burden multiplier of 2.0 to 3.0 is an industry working assumption applied openly so you can change it and recompute.