Grounds keeper vs lawn care worker

The differences between grounds keepers and lawn care workers 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 lawn care worker. Additionally, a grounds keeper has an average salary of $30,535, which is higher than the $29,667 average annual salary of a lawn care worker.

The top three skills for a grounds keeper include GRASS, PET and lawn care. The most important skills for a lawn care worker are GRASS, mowing, and water lawns.

Grounds keeper vs lawn care worker overview

	Grounds Keeper	Lawn Care Worker
Yearly salary	$30,535	$29,667
Hourly rate	$14.68	$14.26
Growth rate	5%	5%
Number of jobs	11,534	88,268
Job satisfaction	-	5
Most common degree	High School Diploma, 48%	High School Diploma, 41%
Average age	41	41
Years of experience	2	2

What does a grounds keeper do?

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.

What does a lawn care worker do?

A lawn care worker specializes in enhancing and maintaining the cleanliness of gardens and landscapes. Most of the responsibilities will require manual work and attention to detail, along with time management. The majority of the tasks will revolve around mowing and cleaning lawns, trimming trees and other plants, maintaining flower beds, and sometimes cleaning garden fixtures. A lawn care worker may also apply pesticides and other chemicals, install ponds or irrigation, recommend fertilizers, and operate different devices or equipment.

Grounds keeper vs lawn care worker salary

Grounds keepers and lawn care workers have different pay scales, as shown below.

	Grounds Keeper	Lawn Care Worker
Average salary	$30,535	$29,667
Salary range	Between $24,000 And $37,000	Between $23,000 And $38,000
Highest paying City	Seattle, WA	Fargo, ND
Highest paying state	Washington	Alaska
Best paying company	Columbia University in the City of New York	Lawn Doctor
Best paying industry	Health Care	Health Care

Differences between grounds keeper and lawn care worker education

There are a few differences between a grounds keeper and a lawn care worker in terms of educational background:

	Grounds Keeper	Lawn Care Worker
Most common degree	High School Diploma, 48%	High School Diploma, 41%
Most common major	Business	Business
Most common college	-	-

Grounds keeper vs lawn care worker demographics

Here are the differences between grounds keepers' and lawn care workers' demographics:

	Grounds Keeper	Lawn Care Worker
Average age	41	41
Gender ratio	Male, 89.1% Female, 10.9%	Male, 77.5% Female, 22.5%
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, 11.0% Unknown, 3.7% Hispanic or Latino, 19.5% Asian, 1.5% White, 63.1% American Indian and Alaska Native, 1.3%
LGBT Percentage	3%	3%

Differences between grounds keeper and lawn care worker duties and responsibilities

Grounds keeper example responsibilities.

Manage hardscape installation team and project
Remove debris from stairs and walks, rakes leaves, and mows lawns.
Remove leaves and other debris from graves, using leaf blowers, rakes, and weed eaters.
Perform flower and foliage care and planting, raking or blowing leaves, mowing grass, mulching and removing weeds.
Assist with general building maintenance including plumbing and electrical repairs.
Used spray guns, brushes, brooms, cleaning solutions, ladders.

Lawn care worker example responsibilities.

Accomplish mowing lawns and all job relate requests given by managers precisely and accurately.
Winter property care equipment include snow blowers, shoveling, and salting.
Provide services such as mowing grass, seed lawns, applying fertilizer and pest control, and trimming hedges and trees.
Mow neighbor's lawns, trim lawn edge, clean driveway and sidewalk from cut grass, and bag cut grass.
Help to trim shrubs and prune dead branches.
Used snow shovels to clear sidewalks and small parking lots.

Grounds keeper vs lawn care worker skills

Common grounds keeper skills

GRASS, 30%
PET, 19%
Lawn Care, 7%
Snow Blowers, 5%
Mowing, 5%
Weed Control, 4%

Common lawn care worker skills

GRASS, 17%
Mowing, 16%
Water Lawns, 10%
Lawn Care, 9%
CPR, 6%
Program Rules, 5%

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Building and Grounds Maintenance Industry
Grounds Keeper
Grounds Keeper vs Lawn Care Worker

Updated January 8, 2025

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