ASHS 2024 Conference

What do careers in the horticultural industry pay? To answer this question, Seed Your Future (SYF) in cooperation with the American Floral Endowment (AFE) and North Carolina State University jointly launched an industry-wide salary survey program in Fall 2022. The survey collected salary and benefits information on a broad range of positions from CEO to seasonal workers as well as hiring trends for eight horticultural sectors: floriculture/greenhouse, florist, nursery, landscape, public gardens, fruit/vegetables and other edibles, garden center/markets, and horticultural services. More information on the sectors can be found at: https://research.seedyourfuture.org/. Average production salaries ranging from a low of $30,160 for fruit/vegetable production seasonal workers to $98,590 for public garden production manager. Pay for most positions was above $40,000. Pay for administration positions was higher and ranged from $46,740 for public garden merchandizers and $50,800 for landscape inventory managers to over $100,000 for fruit/vegetable production maintenance managers at $120,580, horticultural services research/development managers at $129,750 and horticultural services sales managers at $132,633. Needless to say, executive positions were the highest paid. While the average salaries for several positions were relatively low, the large range of salaries for those positions indicates that some positions had high pay, likely where employees had greater longevity. Salaries for many of the administrative-type positions were higher and potential horticulture students need to be aware that these positions are open to them as well. Indeed, these positions could be attractive to students as they would allow them to combine a love of plants and horticulture with various other interests such as business management, marketing, IT, graphic design, etc. Overall, the most common benefits for employees were paid time off, professional development and medical. Other common benefits provided include dental, vision, life insurance, and retirement. A host of other benefits reported by individual companies included Employee Stock Ownership Plan, profit sharing, bonuses, short-term/long-term disability, vehicle, phone, purchase discounts, flexible working environment, meals, and wellness days. The outlook is bright. Future hiring plans were mostly split between increasing hiring (51%) and hiring at the same rate (43%). Few businesses in either sector planned to decreasing hiring. For those looking for positions at either large or small business, horticulture has it covered. Of the businesses surveyed, 54% had 21 or more employees and 46% had 20 or fewer employees.