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The differences between grounds keepers and landscapers can be seen in a few details. Each job has different responsibilities and duties. It typically takes 1-2 years to become both a grounds keeper and a landscaper. Additionally, a grounds keeper has an average salary of $30,535, which is higher than the $28,952 average annual salary of a landscaper.
The top three skills for a grounds keeper include GRASS, PET and lawn care. The most important skills for a landscaper are mowing, taking care, and GRASS.
| Grounds Keeper | Landscaper | |
| Yearly salary | $30,535 | $28,952 |
| Hourly rate | $14.68 | $13.92 |
| Growth rate | 5% | 5% |
| Number of jobs | 11,534 | 11,147 |
| Job satisfaction | - | 4 |
| Most common degree | High School Diploma, 48% | High School Diploma, 49% |
| Average age | 41 | 41 |
| Years of experience | 2 | 2 |
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.
A landscaper is responsible for maintaining gardens, plant areas, and other outdoor facilities. Landscapers' duties include reviewing and adjusting landscape design based on the clients' specifications, analyzing garden layouts, measuring land areas and surfaces for the design outlines, installing irrigation systems, maintaining plant growth, and applying fertilizers regularly. Landscapers will also work on removing weeds, trimming overgrown plants, checking defects on landscape equipment, and coordinating with other outdoor design professionals. A landscaper should be knowledgeable about the recent landscaping trends to suggest designs and improve the landscape presentation.
Grounds keepers and landscapers have different pay scales, as shown below.
| Grounds Keeper | Landscaper | |
| Average salary | $30,535 | $28,952 |
| Salary range | Between $24,000 And $37,000 | Between $23,000 And $36,000 |
| Highest paying City | Seattle, WA | Santa Clara, CA |
| Highest paying state | Washington | Massachusetts |
| Best paying company | Columbia University in the City of New York | Princeton University |
| Best paying industry | Health Care | Health Care |
There are a few differences between a grounds keeper and a landscaper in terms of educational background:
| Grounds Keeper | Landscaper | |
| Most common degree | High School Diploma, 48% | High School Diploma, 49% |
| Most common major | Business | Business |
| Most common college | - | - |
Here are the differences between grounds keepers' and landscapers' demographics:
| Grounds Keeper | Landscaper | |
| Average age | 41 | 41 |
| Gender ratio | Male, 89.1% Female, 10.9% | Male, 91.0% Female, 9.0% |
| 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, 9.8% Unknown, 3.7% Hispanic or Latino, 22.4% Asian, 1.5% White, 61.3% American Indian and Alaska Native, 1.3% |
| LGBT Percentage | 3% | 3% |