Where Pest Control Pays Above the Local Average Wage
Pest control pays $57,274 a year on average, which is 75.5 per cent of what the average private employer pays in the same country, a gap of $18,576. In only two states does the industry match or beat the local private-sector average: Utah at 111.2 per cent and Mississippi at 100.8 per cent. New York is the weakest at 62.7 per cent, despite pest control wages there being among the highest in dollar terms.
Every operator who has tried to hire a technician in the last three years has the same complaint, and it is usually phrased as a national problem. The federal payroll data says it is a local one. What matters is not what the industry pays, but what the industry pays compared with everything else hiring in the same county.
The national gap in dollars
Average annual pay across the pest control industry was $57,274 in 2024, across 152,174 employees. Average annual pay across all private employers was $75,850. That is the recruitment problem stated in dollars: $18,576 a year, or roughly $1,550 a month, is what a candidate gives up on average by choosing this industry over the average alternative available to them.
Two things about that figure. It is an average across everyone on an industry payroll, so it includes office, sales and management staff and sits above what a first-year technician earns. And the comparison figure is also an average, pulled up by finance, technology and professional services. Neither number describes any individual job. The ratio between them is still the cleanest available measure of how the industry stands in a local labour market.
Where the industry competes, and where it does not
| State | Pest control pay | All private employers | Ratio |
|---|---|---|---|
| Utah | $74,408 | $66,893 | 111.2% |
| Mississippi | $50,672 | $50,272 | 100.8% |
| West Virginia | $54,741 | $57,700 | 94.9% |
| Hawaii | $59,141 | $64,847 | 91.2% |
| Maine | $57,525 | $63,280 | 90.9% |
| Rhode Island | $59,523 | $66,500 | 89.5% |
| New Jersey | $60,128 | $83,688 | 71.8% |
| Connecticut | $61,364 | $88,959 | 69.0% |
| California | $63,265 | $92,116 | 68.7% |
| Massachusetts | $66,812 | $97,787 | 68.3% |
| Washington | $61,914 | $97,041 | 63.8% |
| New York | $60,065 | $95,736 | 62.7% |
Average annual pay per employee, 2024. Ratios are pest control pay divided by all-private pay in the same state. Forty-four states have both figures published; the rest are withheld under federal disclosure rules that suppress data where too few employers would be identifiable.
The table inverts the usual reading of a wage list. Massachusetts pays pest control workers $66,812, which is close to the top of the country in raw dollars, and still finishes second from bottom on the measure that decides whether a candidate takes the job. New York pays $60,065 into a labour market averaging $95,736. Mississippi pays $50,672 and is competitive, because everything around it pays $50,272.
This is why a national pay survey is close to useless for a hiring decision. An operator in Boston benchmarking against the national average concludes they are paying above market, and they are, and they still cannot fill the truck.
The Utah question
Utah is the only state where the industry pays a genuine premium, and it pays the highest pest control wage in the country at $74,408, above Massachusetts and California. That is unusual enough to deserve a caveat rather than a celebration.
Payroll data is reported by establishment, and several of the large door-to-door sales-led pest control companies are headquartered in Utah. Headquarters payroll, commission-based sales earnings and executive compensation all land in the state’s pest control total, while the technicians those companies employ are counted in the states where they work. The most likely explanation for Utah’s position is therefore structural rather than a straightforward reflection of what a Salt Lake City technician earns. Anyone using this number to set wages in Utah should treat it as a ceiling shaped by head-office payroll, not a market rate.
Mississippi is the more instructive case, because nothing similar applies. The industry there simply sits level with its local market.
What operators can do with this
- Benchmark against your county, not the industry. The comparison that predicts whether you can hire is your offer against the local all-employer average, which is published free in the same federal dataset.
- Expect the gap to be widest in high-wage metros, and price for it. In the six weakest states the industry is roughly 30 per cent below local average pay, which generally has to be closed with something other than base wage.
- Treat the vehicle as compensation. A take-home truck, fuel and insurance are worth real money against an alternative job that requires commuting, and candidates rarely price them without prompting.
- Watch the ratio, not the raise. A three per cent rise in a market where everything else rose four per cent is a cut in competitive terms.
The structural point is harder. An industry that sits at 75.5 per cent of average private pay nationally, and in most large states well below that, is competing for labour it will keep losing to warehousing, utilities and trades that pay closer to their local averages. Wage is not the only lever, but the data gives little support to the idea that the shortage is mainly about image or awareness.
How we did this
We used the Bureau of Labor Statistics Quarterly Census of Employment and Wages for 2024, the most recent complete year. This is a census of employer payroll tax filings rather than a survey, so it covers essentially every establishment with employees. For each state we took average annual pay for NAICS 561710, exterminating and pest control services, and divided it by average annual pay across all private ownership in that state.
Two limits are worth stating. Average annual pay includes bonuses and commissions and covers all staff on the payroll, not technicians alone; for technician-specific figures see our technician pay analysis. And the series excludes sole proprietors without employees, so the roughly one-person operations covered in our owner-operator data are not in it.
Frequently asked questions
How much does the pest control industry pay?
Average annual pay across the US pest control industry was $57,274 in 2024, covering 152,174 employees on industry payrolls. That figure includes office, sales and management staff as well as technicians, so it runs above what a typical field technician earns.
Does pest control pay above average?
Not in most places. Nationally the industry pays 75.5 per cent of what the average private employer pays, a gap of $18,576 a year. Of the 44 states with published figures, only Utah at 111.2 per cent and Mississippi at 100.8 per cent match or exceed their local private-sector average.
Which state pays pest control workers the most?
Utah, at $74,408 in 2024, though that figure is likely inflated by the head-office and commission-sales payroll of the large door-to-door pest control companies based there. Massachusetts at $66,812 and California at $63,265 follow, and both sit around 68 per cent of their local private-sector averages.
Why is it hard to hire pest control technicians?
The federal payroll data points at the local wage gap. In high-wage states the industry pays roughly 30 per cent below the local all-employer average, so an operator can pay near the top of the national industry range and still lose candidates to employers outside the industry. Comparing an offer against the local average rather than the industry average is what tends to reveal this.
Sources
- US Bureau of Labor Statistics, Quarterly Census of Employment and Wages, NAICS 561710 and total private ownership, annual averages 2024. bls.gov
- Analysis by The Pest Control Brief, September 2026.
