Pesticide Handlers, Sprayers, and Applicators, Vegetation Salary and Pay

The national wage ladder (BLS OEWS, May 2024)

A percentile marks a point in this occupation's pay distribution: the worker one quarter of the way up the Pesticide Handlers, Sprayers, and Applicators, Vegetation ladder earns the 25th percentile wage, $38,040. BLS top-codes very high wages ($239,200+ a year, $115.00+ an hour) and marks estimates it cannot publish as n/p.

Employment and concentration

The occupation employed 25,200 people in May 2024, 0.02% of every job BLS counted. Florida is the largest employer at 4,420 jobs, and the leading three states between them hold 30.9% of the workforce. Concentration peaks in South Dakota, whose location quotient of 9.26 says this work is 9.26 times as dense there as it is nationwide.

One in ten workers in this field earns $34,590 or less, and one in ten earns $58,910 or more, so the top-to-bottom ratio is 1.7 to 1 and the annual gap is $24,320. The mean ($45,960) versus median ($45,200) comparison shows a right-skewed ladder where senior and specialist roles lift the average in this occupation.

Pay by state

The state spread for Pesticide Handlers, Sprayers, and Applicators, Vegetation runs from the $59,550 median in Massachusetts down through every other publishing state. Employment concentrates in Florida (4,420 jobs). The complete table:

The occupation in context

Ranked against all 826 published occupations, Pesticide Handlers, Sprayers, and Applicators, Vegetation stands number 511 by employment and number 637 by median pay. Inside its own major group, Building and Grounds Cleaning and Maintenance Occupations, the group median wage is $44,730 across 10 detailed occupations, so this occupation pays 1% more than its group median, and it supplies 0.6% of the group's 4,496,160 jobs. In 26 of the 47 states with a published median, the state median beats the national median of $45,200, which is the single best quick test of whether this occupation's pay is set nationally or locally: a high count means local markets regularly outbid the national figure.

Metropolitan areas: where the jobs and the pay sit

Miami-Fort Lauderdale-West Palm Beach, FL is the largest metro employer with 1,120 jobs, 4.4% of the national total. Two rankings follow across the 104 metros BLS publishes for this occupation: where the jobs are, then where the money is, with the pay ranking restricted to metros employing at least 500 people in this occupation to keep small samples out of the lead.

Largest metro employers

Highest-paying metros (500+ jobs)

At the other end, Tampa-St. Petersburg-Clearwater, FL posts the lowest mean pay among metros with at least 500 jobs, $42,510 a year, against $55,450 in New York-Newark-Jersey City, NY-NJ. The lowest-paying large metro and the highest are both real markets for this occupation; the difference between them is the geography premium, or penalty, in cash terms.

What the median pay looks like as a budget

Budget arithmetic on the median: $3,767 a month before tax, $1,738 biweekly, $869 weekly. Moving from the 25th percentile ($38,040) to the 75th ($50,960) is worth $12,920 a year, which is the realistic size of the experience and specialization premium inside this occupation. To turn any of these gross figures into spendable money, run them through the paycheck calculator; to weigh an offer against your current role, use the salary calculator; to test a raise against prices, the raise vs inflation calculator.

To place a real offer: a salary of $49,720 would sit between the median ($45,200) and the 75th percentile ($50,960), inside the top half but outside the top quarter of this occupation's ladder. An offer at the 25th percentile, $38,040, is $7,160 under the median, the typical size of the discount attached to entry-level or low-cost-market postings in this field.

Related occupations in Building and Grounds Cleaning and Maintenance Occupations

Compare the ladder above with the closest relatives in the survey: Landscaping and Groundskeeping Workers, Maids and Housekeeping Cleaners, First-Line Supervisors of Housekeeping and Janitorial Workers, First-Line Supervisors of Landscaping, Lawn Service, and Groundskeeping Workers, Pest Control Workers, Tree Trimmers and Pruners. The Careers hub carries the whole branch, group by group.