Occupation / job
Pesticide Handlers, Sprayers, and Applicators, Vegetation
Median annual pay. Half earn less than this.
Hourly at a standard 2,080-hour year. We do not yet have unpaid-time or cost data for this, so this is not an adjusted figure.
The middle half. A quarter earn below this range.
Source: BLS Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics, May 2025 · view
What this figure cannot tell you
It covers people EMPLOYED in this occupation. Anyone who trained for it and was never hired is not in the median above, and neither is anyone doing the work self-employed. No verified count of qualified people exists for this occupation, so this page shows none rather than an estimate. Why that matters · The occupations where we could source it
Who this suits
At $46,340, Pesticide Handlers, Sprayers, and Applicators, Vegetation lands just under the $50,020 national midpoint — $3,680 apart, inside the range a single promotion or a move between states closes.
27,050 people do this work nationally. That is the size at which Pesticide Handlers, Sprayers, and Applicators, Vegetation becomes a career rather than a post — enough employers in a normal city that leaving one of them is a decision rather than a crisis.
Grounds work suits people who would rather be outdoors in bad weather than indoors under a light, and who can sustain physical effort over years rather than a season.
No verified preparation time is on file for Pesticide Handlers, Sprayers, and Applicators, Vegetation. The wage survey behind every figure on this page asks employers what they pay, not what they required, so the honest answer here is that we do not know.
Who should not do this
A quarter of Pesticide Handlers, Sprayers, and Applicators, Vegetation earn under $39,160 and a quarter over $51,240: 1.3x, and $12,080 between the ends. That is a narrow band — enough room to be paid better than average, not enough for the occupation to be a route to a materially different income.
The 25th percentile is $39,160 — $18.82 an hour, and $10,860 below the $50,020 typical American job. Entry-level in this field means that number, not the midpoint, so budget against it.
Avoid it if you cannot sustain physical work outdoors in bad weather for years rather than a season.
No failure rate is shown, and the absence is deliberate: the 27,050 figure counts people already working as Pesticide Handlers, Sprayers, and Applicators, Vegetation, not everyone who trained and never got hired. Without a licensing register to divide by, a rate here would be an invented denominator.
What the spread tells you
A 1.3x spread means the top quarter of Pesticide Handlers, Sprayers, and Applicators, Vegetation is not doing a different job from the bottom quarter, just a slightly better-paid version of the same one. Between $39,160 and $51,240 is the whole of the negotiation.
In cash terms the middle half of Pesticide Handlers, Sprayers, and Applicators, Vegetation runs $39,160 to $51,240 — $12,080 a year between the 25th and 75th percentiles, against a midpoint of $46,340.
The 75th percentile is $51,240. Reaching it from the $46,340 midpoint is $4,900 a year; reaching it from the $39,160 that the bottom quarter of Pesticide Handlers, Sprayers, and Applicators, Vegetation earn is $12,080.
Getting from $39,160 to the $46,340 midpoint is $7,180; getting from there to $51,240 is only $4,900. The hard part of the range is the lower half, which is also the half a newcomer starts in.
On a 2,080-hour year the midpoint for Pesticide Handlers, Sprayers, and Applicators, Vegetation is $22.27 an hour. The quarters sit at $18.82 and $24.63, and the all-occupation midpoint at $24.04.
What these figures are, and what they are not
Employers reported these wages for people already working as Pesticide Handlers, Sprayers, and Applicators, Vegetation. The self-employed are excluded, so $46,340 does not describe an independent doing the same work.
With no unpaid-hours or cost data for Pesticide Handlers, Sprayers, and Applicators, Vegetation, the hourly figure is $46,340 over a 2,080-hour year — a unit conversion, not an adjustment.
How this is calculated · Self-employment failure rates · What credentials cost and pay back · Look up something else