Farmworkers and Laborers, Crop, Nursery, and Greenhouse Salary - BLS OEWS Wage Benchmarks
SOC 45-2092 · National · May 2025 OEWS Data
Median Annual Salary
$35,672
$17.15/hr
Verified BLS OEWS data · Updated May 18, 2026
Source: BLS OEWS · Published May 15, 2026
Next refresh: May 2027
Get notified when this number updates
Personal or work email, both work. No account needed. Unsubscribe anytime.
The national median salary for Farmworkers and Laborers, Crop, Nursery, and Greenhouse is $35,672 per year ($17.15/hr) according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics (OEWS) survey, May 2025. The middle 50% of earners make between $34,320 and $38,834 annually. Top earners at the 90th percentile reach $45,677 per year. There are approximately 265,500 farmworkers and laborers, crop, nursery, and greenhouse employed in the United States.
About This Role
BLS Standard Occupational Classification 2018
Manually plant, cultivate, and harvest vegetables, fruits, nuts, horticultural specialties, and field crops. Use hand tools, such as shovels, trowels, hoes, tampers, pruning hooks, shears, and knives. Duties may include tilling soil and applying fertilizers; transplanting, weeding, thinning, or pruning crops; applying pesticides; or cleaning, grading, sorting, packing, and loading harvested products. May construct trellises, repair fences and farm buildings, or participate in irrigation activities.
Career Outlook
BLS Employment Projections · 2024-2034
10-year growth
-3.3%
Slower than average
Annual openings
72K
per year, on avg
Workforce today
505K
as of 2024
Why those openings exist
0% from new growth100% from people leaving the role
Most openings come from replacement, not growth. Retention matters more than recruiting here.
Typical entry requirements
Education
No formal educational credential
Experience
None
On-the-job training
Short-term on-the-job training
Industry Wage Breakdown
Top 5 industries by employment · median annual wage, sector-specific
Industry
Workforce
Median Pay
Support Activities for Crop Production
NAICS 115100
196K
$35,260
Merchant Wholesalers, Nondurable Goods (4241, 4247, and 4249 only)
NAICS 4240A3
14K
$36,400
Lawn and Garden Equipment and Supplies Retailers
NAICS 444200
14K
$35,560
Other Miscellaneous Retailers
NAICS 459900
6K
$36,590
Beverage Manufacturing
NAICS 312100
5K
$38,540
Wage Percentiles
Hourly & annualized (2,080 hours)
Percentile
Hourly Rate
Annual Salary
P10
$15.82
$32,906
P25
$16.50
$34,320
P50MEDIAN
$17.15
$35,672
P75
$18.67
$38,834
P90
$21.96
$45,677
Market Context Signal
JOLTS · other sector
Active
Openings Rate
3.4%
Quits Rate
2.0%
The labor market rebounded in March: hires jumped to 5.6M (+655K) and separations rose to 5.4M (+356K), both more than offsetting February's drop. Job openings held at 6.9M. Quits ticked to 2.0%.
Frequently Asked Questions
What is the average farmworkers and laborers, crop, nursery, and greenhouse salary?
The national median salary for Farmworkers and Laborers, Crop, Nursery, and Greenhouse is $35,672 per year ($17.15/hr) according to BLS OEWS May 2025 data. The middle 50% earn between $34,320 and $38,834 annually.
How much do top-earning farmworkers and laborers, crop, nursery, and greenhouse make?
The 90th percentile salary for Farmworkers and Laborers, Crop, Nursery, and Greenhouse is $45,677 per year ($21.96/hr). The 75th percentile is $38,834 per year.
What is the entry-level salary for farmworkers and laborers, crop, nursery, and greenhouse?
Entry-level Farmworkers and Laborers, Crop, Nursery, and Greenhouse (10th percentile) earn approximately $32,906 per year ($15.82/hr). The 25th percentile is $34,320 per year.
Wage figures on this page come from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) Occupational Employment & Wage Statistics (OEWS) survey, May 2025 release. OEWS surveys roughly 1.1 million establishments annually. It is the most comprehensive employer-reported wage dataset in the United States.
P10 through P90 percentiles represent the wage distribution across all surveyed employers (not self-reported by workers). Geographic adjustments use BLS-derived cost multipliers calibrated from regional wage variation.
Wages are estimates. Individual compensation depends on experience, education, employer size, industry, and negotiation. Use this as benchmark context, not absolute ground truth.
CompSignal is a free labor market intelligence tool built for HR, compensation, and talent acquisition teams. We make BLS data, the same primary source Mercer and Radford cross-reference in their paid surveys, searchable and actionable without an enterprise subscription.
Built and maintained by Falcon Incentives, a compensation strategy and incentive design consultancy.