What landscapers earn in Waterloo, IA
Landscapers in Waterloo, IA earn a median $18.64 an hour, near the Iowa median of $18.71. About 480 work in the area (BLS).
Wage figures: U.S. BLS Occupational Employment & Wage Statistics (OEWS), latest release. These are published labor-market averages — what landscapers are paid, not the price you should charge. Your quote is built from your own burdened costs plus overhead and margin.
The landscapers pay range in Waterloo, IA — and what it signals for pricing
Wages here span a real range, and that spread is itself a pricing signal:
| Experience level | Hourly wage |
|---|---|
| Median (50th percentile) | $18.64/hr |
| Experienced (90th percentile) | $27.77/hr |
BLS counts about 480 landscapers working in Waterloo, IA — a read on both your competition and your potential demand.
Percentiles & employment: BLS OEWS, latest release. What a worker is paid is the input to your price, not the price itself.
Turning Waterloo, IA labor cost into a profitable price
The wage above is the input, not the price. To quote a landscaper job and actually keep the margin, you load that wage into a burdened rate, add overhead, then price from the margin you need:
- Burden the wage — taxes, comp, insurance, and non-billable time turn a $18.64 wage into a higher true cost per field hour. See the labor burden guide.
- Recover overhead — every job carries a slice of your fixed costs. See overhead recovery.
- Price from margin, not markup — to keep 30% you mark up ~43%, not 30%. Run your numbers in the markup ↔ margin calculator.
For the full trade-specific method, see how to price landscapers work.
Waterloo, IA market context
Pricing doesn't happen in a vacuum — the local cost of living and customer base shape what the market supports:
- Median household income: $62,381 (Census ACS) — a read on what local customers can support.
- Median home value: $190,200 — higher-value homes often mean larger, better-funded projects.
- Population: 168,162 — the size of the local market.
Demographics: U.S. Census ACS 1-year. Cost index: BEA Regional Price Parities. Context only — price from your own costs.
Stop pricing from memory
The Contractor Authority System™ turns this into a repeatable process — burdened labor & overhead, change-order protection, and client-ready proposals. One-time $97.
FAQ
Per BLS OEWS (latest release), the median wage is $18.64 per hour and the mean is $19.63 per hour for this area. That's the labor cost input — a customer-facing job price adds burden, overhead, and margin on top.
Local wages, cost of living, demand, and competition all move the number — in Waterloo, IA, landscapers run a median $18.64/hr across roughly 480 workers. That's why a price built from your own burdened costs beats copying a regional average — use the area figure as context, not your quote.