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How Much to Pay Pest Control Employees

Published on June 17, 2021

One of the most effective ways to hire and keep the best technicians is by knowing how much to pay pest control employees.

Whether you’re hiring your first employee, or you’re wondering whether you’re paying your pest control employees too much or too little, this guide will help.

Use this quick and easy guide to use proper compensation to win all of the best pest control technicians and beat your competition!

In this guide, you’ll get things like:

  • Average pest control technician salary in your area
  • Main pay scale structure for pest control businesses
  • Factors to consider when deciding a pest control technician’s salary
  • Various ways bonuses, benefits, and perks contribute to overall compensation
  • Best ways to recognize and ensure your pest control technicians’ job satisfaction

Your bottom line, the quality of work, and attention to detail is affected by how much you pay your pest control employees.

It’s important to always remember that your pest control employees are a direct reflection of your pest control business’ image.

By the end of this article, you’ll have everything you need to know how much to pay pest control employees.

1. Check Your Pest Control Prices

Check your pest control prices to make sure they’re right before deciding how much to pay your pest control employees.

To determine whether you’re charging enough for your pest control services, you’ll need to find your man hour rate.

Since you’re in the business of selling time, you need to know how long it’s taking your pest control technicians to finish certain jobs.

To find your man hour rate, use this formula:

(number of workers) x (hours on the job)

_________________________________________

(price of the job)

For example, if your pest control technician spends about 15 minutes spraying a yard for mosquitoes, and you’re charging $125 per spray (or $500 per season), then your man hour rate is about $833.

(1) x (.15)

_________________________________________

($125)

And don’t forget! You and your pest control technicians need to be tracking the time spent on every pest control service. By far, the best and easiest way to track your time is by using pest control software.

Since you now know your man hour rate, you have an idea of what you can pay your pest control employees. However, you’ll need to remember to leave room for reaching profit goals and overhead costs (i.e. costs for gas, insurance, and marketing, etc… ).

In other words, your pest control prices need to be sufficient enough to pay for your overhead costs while also giving you enough profit to grow your pest control business.

As always, check your pest control prices with a trusted financial advisor or accountant before finalizing it.

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2. Get the Average Pest Control Technician Salary

In general, pest control technician salaries widely vary based on the position you’re filling. Also, these wages vary between hourly and salaried pay.

Here are a few salary ranges that pest control businesses are offering for different pest control technician positions:

  • Technician: $34,000-35,000 per year
  • Start Technician: $3,200-4,000 per month
  • Route Technician: $35,000-55,000 per year
  • Mosquito and Pest Control Technician: $16-19 per hour
  • Field Technician: $60,000-100,000 per year
  • Irrigation Technician: $18-24 per hour
  • Apprentice Field Service Technician: $14-18 per hour

Based on the pest control employee wages listed above, there are a wide variety of pest control salary ranges.

Since these salary ranges are so far spread out, you can’t base your employee wages on it. However, it’s important for you to compare your salary with your local competitors’ similar open positions so you can compete with what they’re offering.

In order to know what you need to do to hire the best pest control employees in your area, this step is vital in getting to know what your local competition is offering.

3. Decide How to Pay Your Pest Control Employees

In general, pest control businesses usually choose to pay their employees either hourly or salaried.

Let’s talk about the two most common ways of paying your pest control employees:

Hourly

Depending on the needs of your business, you might choose to pay your pest control employees an hourly wage.

Using this pay scale, you’ll pay your pest control employees a set hourly wage until they reach 40 hours for the week. Afterwhich, you’ll pay them time and a half for any hours they’ve worked past 40 hours.

Since there’s a decreased risk of losing profit, many pest control business owners prefer to pay their employees an hourly salary.

In general, an hourly salary works well for new pest control businesses and entry level positions.

If you choose this method, make sure you follow the proper Overtime Laws (similar laws apply in Canada too).

Salary

Salaried pay is another popular payment structure among pest control businesses.

Typically, salaried pay is almost a given for highly qualified pest control employees and/or those in leadership.

Depending on your local competition and business setup, salaried wages can be highly effective at attracting the best talent in your area.

In order to make the best decisions possible for your pest control business, always consult with your financial advisor or accountant.

4. How to Set Your Pest Control Technician Salary

Due to the wide array of factors you need to consider, pest control technician salaries tend to be very subjective to your business.

To start, how much you pay your pest control technicians is based on which pay scale structure you choose - hourly or salaried.

These are the main factors you need to consider when determining your pest control technician salary:

  • Location
    • Due to the cost of living and tax variants based on your area, different parts of the country will pay more or less.
  • Market
    • As a general rule of thumb, the lower the unemployment rate, the more you’ll have to pay in order to attract the right pest control technicians.
  • Competition
    • If you don’t want to be stuck with the leftover pest control candidates that your competitors don’t want, then you’ll have to properly compensate your employees (possibly offering more than your competition).

5. How to Keep Your Best Pest Control Employees

While offering competitive pay is essential to keeping your best pest control employees, it’s not the only factor you need to take into account.

The best pest control employees also care about other forms of compensation, like benefits, company culture, and bonuses.

As a result, in addition to offering competitive pay, you also need to treat your pest control technicians right - listen to them, treat them fairly, provide them with a clear career path with goals, and offer an open door policy.

These are a few additional ways you can keep your best pest control employees:

  • 401K plan
  • Health insurance
  • Incentive programs
  • Paid Time Off (PTO)
  • Team-building company events

Keep in mind, the items listed above are just a few of the countless ways you can properly compensate your pest control employees.

Though, if you’re just starting your pest control business, you may not have the ability to offer all of these compensations in the beginning. However, you can make it a priority to introduce additional compensations as your budget allows.

Always remember! You need to listen to your pest control employees’ feedback and acknowledge their wants and concerns. After all, this is the best way to keep your best pest control technicians from leaving you for your competition.

Prior to adopting any of these compensations, you should speak with your trusted financial advisor or accountant to make the best decisions for your pest control business.

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Grow Your Business By Knowing How Much to Pay Pest Control Employees

At last, you know how much to pay your pest control employees in order to grow your business.

Before making any financial decisions about your business, ALWAYS REMEMBER to talk with your financial advisor or accountant.

As you're deciding how to properly compensate your pest control technicians, always remember to listen to your pest control employee feedback.

In fact, your pest control employees’ compensation is about way more than money. It’s also about company culture.

When you follow the steps in this simple guide, I promise you’ll have everything you need to keep the best pest control technicians in your area.


Related: The Best Pest Control Employee Hiring Guide


Originally published June 17, 2021 10:18 AM

Alyssa Sanders

Alyssa is the Team Lead of Creative Marketing at Xplor Field Services. Alyssa is an expert in field service industry trends, roadblocks, and solutions. When she’s not writing or creating engaging content, you can find her watching a new sci-fi series or shoving her nose into a good book.
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