Tools/Hourly rate
Free tool
Lawn care hourly rate calculator
Turn crew wages, fuel, and overhead into a cost floor and suggested visit prices. Same math as the in-app rate card, no account required.
- Cost floor
- Visit prices
- Cash, not hourly
What this calculator does
Most lawn care shops underprice because they treat wage as the rate. This tool builds a cost floor per crew hour from loaded labor, fuel, equipment, and overhead, then a target revenue per hour from the margin you actually need. Visit prices come from on-site minutes plus travel. That is the cash number to put on a mow, not a reason to invoice hourly.
A worked example: $48 loaded labor, $10 fuel, $8 equipment, and $9 overhead is a $75 floor. At 30% margin that is about $107 per hour. A 35-minute yard with 10 minutes of travel wants about $80 cash before add-ons. Card processing is not baked in. Regular vs Cash lives on the quote.
How to use the calculator
Step 1
Enter crew costs
Enter people on the truck, wage per person, payroll burden, fuel and truck, equipment reserve, and overhead for one crew hour.
Step 2
See the floor
The calculator loads wages with burden, adds hourly costs, and divides by one minus your target margin to get cash revenue per hour.
Step 3
Price the visit
Suggested cash visit prices use 25, 35, and 45 minutes on site plus allocated travel. Round to clean numbers and type them into your catalog. Do not bill hourly.
This is a cash floor for visit prices— not crew payroll, and not a reason to bill hourly. Sign up free to put these numbers on your catalog and quotes.
Floor / hr
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Target / hr
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35-min visit
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Crew
What the truck costs in wages before you add burden.
Crew size for one hour of work
What you pay, before burden
Payroll tax, workers’ comp
Hourly costs
Fuel, iron, and the shop slice that every hour has to cover.
Insurance, shop, software
Pricing
Margin on revenue. Travel is allocated to each stop.
On revenue, not markup on cost
Adds to each visit price. Does not change the hourly floor.
Used for a $/sq ft catalog hint
Longer version: how to price lawn care jobs. Then put the cash numbers on a lot-size quote.
Frequently asked questions
- How do I calculate a lawn care hourly rate?
- Add loaded labor (wages plus payroll burden), fuel and truck, an equipment reserve, and an overhead slice. That is your cost floor per crew hour. Divide the floor by one minus your target margin to get the cash revenue an hour should earn. Then price each stop from on-site minutes plus allocated travel.
- What is a good lawn care hourly rate?
- There is no national number that fits every shop. A worked example in our pricing guide is a $75 cost floor and about $107 target revenue per hour at 30% margin. Replace those lines with your wages, fuel, and overhead. The right rate is the one that covers a loaded hour and still leaves the margin you need.
- How much should I charge for a 35-minute lawn mowing visit?
- Take your target revenue per hour, multiply by economic minutes (on-site plus allocated travel), and divide by 60. At about $107 per hour with 10 minutes of travel, a 35-minute yard is 45 minutes of economic time, about $80 cash before add-ons. Raise it for slope, access, or a neglected first cut.
- Should I bill lawn care by the hour?
- Usually no. Use the hourly number as a floor behind visit prices. Residential mowing should stay package-priced so customers are not watching the clock. Type the suggested visit prices into your catalog.
- Does this calculator include card processing fees?
- No. The result is the cash number you need to keep. If you use Regular vs Cash dual pricing in MowProHQ, the card total is that cash price plus your processing rate on the quote and invoice.
- Why does travel change the visit price but not the hourly floor?
- The crew still costs the same per hour whether the next lot is two doors down or 20 minutes away. Travel is allocated to that stop, so only the visit price moves.
- Can I save these prices in MowProHQ?
- Yes. Sign up free, then type the cash visit prices or the optional dollars-per-square-foot hint into Products & Services. The calculator does not write your catalog for you.
Put the rate card on real quotes
Start free. Type the visit prices into Products & Services, then send estimates with lot-size pricing and Regular vs Cash.
