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The differences between grounds keepers and grounds maintenance supervisors can be seen in a few details. Each job has different responsibilities and duties. While it typically takes 1-2 years to become a grounds keeper, becoming a grounds maintenance supervisor takes usually requires 2-4 years. Additionally, a grounds maintenance supervisor has an average salary of $31,800, which is higher than the $30,535 average annual salary of a grounds keeper.
The top three skills for a grounds keeper include GRASS, PET and lawn care. The most important skills for a grounds maintenance supervisor are mowing, GRASS, and hand tools.
| Grounds Keeper | Grounds Maintenance Supervisor | |
| Yearly salary | $30,535 | $31,800 |
| Hourly rate | $14.68 | $15.29 |
| Growth rate | 5% | 5% |
| Number of jobs | 11,534 | 63,289 |
| Job satisfaction | - | - |
| Most common degree | High School Diploma, 48% | High School Diploma, 41% |
| Average age | 41 | 45 |
| Years of experience | 2 | 4 |
A groundskeeper's job responsibility is to maintain and modify outdoor areas such as college campuses, parks, gardens, etc. Your major duty is to carry out routine maintenance, planting, and gardening of a business or park's landscape. You may have to perform duties like mowing and maintaining lawns, planting new greenery, and trimming shrubs. Other duties you may likely carry out are watering, fertilizing, mulching, and applying pesticides. In all, the goal is to maintain the grounds of the place where you work.
The grounds maintenance supervisor is in charge of the maintenance and landscape crew. These are people who mow lawns, trim overgrown shrubs, irrigate planting beds, and perform a host of other outdoor maintenance tasks. Your job will be to supervise them and ensure that the grounds are attractive and orderly. Grounds could either be sports grounds, gardens, lawns, parks, businesses, or urban infrastructure.
Grounds keepers and grounds maintenance supervisors have different pay scales, as shown below.
| Grounds Keeper | Grounds Maintenance Supervisor | |
| Average salary | $30,535 | $31,800 |
| Salary range | Between $24,000 And $37,000 | Between $24,000 And $41,000 |
| Highest paying City | Seattle, WA | Orcutt, CA |
| Highest paying state | Washington | California |
| Best paying company | Columbia University in the City of New York | Kern Community College District |
| Best paying industry | Health Care | Health Care |
There are a few differences between a grounds keeper and a grounds maintenance supervisor in terms of educational background:
| Grounds Keeper | Grounds Maintenance Supervisor | |
| Most common degree | High School Diploma, 48% | High School Diploma, 41% |
| Most common major | Business | Business |
| Most common college | - | Pennsylvania State University |
Here are the differences between grounds keepers' and grounds maintenance supervisors' demographics:
| Grounds Keeper | Grounds Maintenance Supervisor | |
| Average age | 41 | 45 |
| Gender ratio | Male, 89.1% Female, 10.9% | Male, 90.5% Female, 9.5% |
| Race ratio | Black or African American, 10.3% Unknown, 3.9% Hispanic or Latino, 21.6% Asian, 2.2% White, 60.6% American Indian and Alaska Native, 1.4% | Black or African American, 7.7% Unknown, 4.6% Hispanic or Latino, 16.9% Asian, 1.3% White, 68.7% American Indian and Alaska Native, 0.9% |
| LGBT Percentage | 3% | 3% |