How much does a gardener cost in Guatemala? It depends on how you hire — by the day, by the visit, or on a fixed monthly contract — on the size of the garden, on the zone, and on whether you are dealing with an independent gardener or a landscaping company with a crew. Unlike electricians or masons, there is no published, standardised rate for gardening in Guatemala: most gardeners and companies quote after seeing the plot. So this guide treats every service number as an indicative range to confirm with several providers, and spends its real weight on the part that costs foreign homeowners actual money — the point at which the man who comes every Saturday becomes your employee.
What is solid: the official minimum wage floor and the reported salary data. In practice, an independent gardener charges an indicative Q150-300 per day, a maintenance visit runs Q150-900 depending on garden size, and a monthly contract starts around Q800 (verified May 2026).
Quick summary: No official published gardening tariff in Guatemala. Reference floor: 2026 non-agricultural daily minimum wage Q131.58 (Guatemala department) and Q125.49 (rest of the country). Independent gardener day rate, indicative: Q150-300. Single maintenance visit, indicative: Q150-900 by garden size. Monthly contract for a small garden from Q800. Average reported salary Q3,574/month (Computrabajo, consulted 21 September 2026). If he works for your household on a fixed schedule, the household regime applies: Q4,252.28/month CE1 minimum, Bono 14, Aguinaldo, vacation, severance, PRECAPI.
Dollar figures on this page convert at the live Banguat reference rate — Q7.65 per US dollar as of 2026-10-16 — and update on their own. They are not typed-in literals.
How Gardening Is Billed
Decide how you are hiring before you ask for a price. Gardening is charged four ways, and the same task can come out very differently depending on the model.
| Model | How it works | When it fits |
|---|---|---|
| Per day (jornal) | You pay for a full working day | Big clean-ups, heavy pruning, a neglected garden |
| Per visit | A fixed price per maintenance visit | A garden already under control that needs regular cutting |
| Monthly contract | A fixed fee for X visits a month | A residence, office or condominium with a permanent garden |
| Per project | One price for a defined job | Garden design, turf installation, automatic irrigation |
These ranges are an editorial estimate built from quotes we gathered, not a published price list.
The day rate fits when the garden is overgrown and nobody knows how much work is in there. Per visit and monthly contract fit when the garden is already controlled and only needs periodic maintenance. Which of the two is cheaper is not a given — price both, as the monthly-contract section below shows.
Day Rate: The Legal Floor and the Market
There is no officially published gardening day rate. The only official number is the daily minimum wage, which sets the legal floor for any unskilled work.
| Reference | Daily amount | USD (live rate) |
|---|---|---|
| Non-agricultural daily minimum, Guatemala department (CE1, 2026) | Q131.58 | ~$17 USD |
| Non-agricultural daily minimum, rest of the country (CE2, 2026) | Q125.49 | ~$16 USD |
| Agricultural daily minimum, Guatemala department (CE1, 2026) | Q124.64 | ~$16 USD |
| Agricultural daily minimum, rest of the country (CE2, 2026) | Q119.21 | ~$16 USD |
| Indicative day rate, independent gardener | Q150-300 | ~$20 USD to ~$39 USD |
The minimum wage is official data from Acuerdo Gubernativo 256-2025, in force since January 2026. The Q150-300 day rate is a market reference, not a published tariff: a self-employed gardener’s price can sit above the legal minimum because it carries his transport, his tools and his experience. In Guatemala City, Antigua and residential zones the day rate tends to the top of the range; in mid-sized towns and rural areas, to the bottom. Confirm with two or three gardeners.
A note on which daily figure to use. The number above is the decree’s own daily non-agricultural rate — the legal floor. Our domestic worker minimum wage page carries the same Q131.58 alongside Q133.41, the base ÷ 30 payroll convention (Q4,002.28 ÷ 30) used by some calculators; that second figure is not in the decree, and it quotes an hourly rate of Q21.01 (Q4,002.28 ÷ 190.5 hours, the site’s own divisor; the decree publishes no hourly rate). If you are hiring a gardener as a household employee, use the monthly figure — that is the base every benefit is calculated on. The daily figures are for pricing a one-off day of work.
Maintenance Visits
For a garden already under control, the norm is periodic visits — weekly, fortnightly or monthly. These ranges are indicative and move with garden size and how much growth there is to cut.
| Garden size | Indicative range per visit | USD (live rate) |
|---|---|---|
| Small (patio, grass, a few plants) | Q150-300 | ~$20 USD to ~$39 USD |
| Medium (residence with a wide lawn and shrubs) | Q250-500 | ~$33 USD to ~$65 USD |
| Large (wide plot, several trees) | Q400-900 | ~$52 USD to ~$118 USD |
A typical visit covers mowing, edging, weeding, leaf clearing and collecting green waste. Tall-tree pruning, spraying and design are quoted separately. These numbers are references, not fixed market prices.
Monthly Contracts
Residences, offices and condominiums can contract a monthly plan with a fixed number of visits. Watch the arithmetic: the monthly fee does not always come out cheaper than paying per visit. Two small-garden visits quoted separately come to Q300-600 on the table above, while the monthly plans quoted in the market start at around Q800. Neither figure is a published tariff — ask for both quotes, per visit and monthly, and compare before signing.
| Plan | Typical visits | Indicative monthly range | USD (live rate) |
|---|---|---|---|
| Small garden | 2 per month | Q800-1,500 | ~$105 USD to ~$196 USD |
| Medium garden | 2-4 per month | Q1,200-3,000 | ~$157 USD to ~$392 USD |
| Large garden / condominium green area | 4+ per month | Q3,000-8,000+ | from ~$392 USD |
The contract should state in writing how many visits it includes, what tasks each visit covers (cutting, weeding, fertilising, spraying) and what is excluded. Ask whether major tree pruning and replacing plants are inside the base fee. Treat these amounts as indicative and ask for a formal quote.
Project Work
Some jobs are not maintenance but one-off projects, charged separately, after a site measure: height pruning, designing and installing a new garden, laying turf by the square metre, installing automatic irrigation, spraying, and tree felling. There are no reliable published market ranges for these in Guatemala, so they are quoted case by case.
Height pruning is risky work: ask that the gardener have experience and safety equipment, and for large trees near cables or buildings, confirm who carries the liability if something is damaged.
The Line Where Your Gardener Becomes Your Employee
This is the section that has nothing to do with price and everything to do with what a garden actually costs a foreign or diaspora homeowner. Guatemala does not treat “the gardener” as one legal category — it treats how you use him as the category.
What our domestic worker page says. The domestic worker minimum wage page lists the roles covered by the household regime — cooks, nannies, house cleaners, caregivers, private drivers, household security — and includes jardineros: gardeners working for one household, adding explicitly that multi-household contractors are a different category. That single parenthesis is the whole test. A gardener who maintains fifteen gardens around your zone is a contractor. A gardener who works your garden, on your schedule, and only yours, is on the road to being an employee.
What that costs if it applies. Per the same page:
| Obligation | 2026 amount |
|---|---|
| Minimum wage CE1 (Guatemala department) | Q4,002.28 base + Q250 bonus = Q4,252.28/month (~$556 USD ) |
| Minimum wage CE2 (other 21 departments) | Q3,816.90 base + Q250 bonus = Q4,066.90/month (~$532 USD ) |
| Bono 14 | One base salary, paid July 1-15 |
| Aguinaldo | One base salary, half in the first half of December, half in the second half of January (Decreto 76-78, Art. 2) |
| Paid vacation | 15 working days per year, after one year of service |
| Rest | At least 10 hours a day (8 at night, continuous; 2 for meals) + 6 extra paid rest hours on Sundays and holidays (Labor Code Art. 164) |
| Workday limit | None for domestic work: Art. 164 excludes the workday limits and Arts. 126-127 |
| Severance | One base salary per year of service if dismissed without cause |
That page puts the minimum total annual employer cost for a CE1 household worker at about Q60,246.56, including twelve monthly wages, Bono 14, Aguinaldo and the employer PRECAPI quota. The legal basis it cites is Acuerdo Gubernativo 256-2025, Decreto 78-89 for the Q250 bonus, and ILO Convention 189, which Guatemala has not ratified. There is no legal “domestic worker discount”.
The by-the-day tripwire. Our guide to hiring domestic help confirms that by-day arrangements are common at Q150-300 a day for cleaning or garden work — and then states the trap plainly: continuous by-day work becomes a full de planta employment relationship, with the same minimum wage, Bono 14, Aguinaldo, vacation and severance obligations as a salaried hire. Occasional, genuinely independent day work is one thing; the same person on a fixed weekly schedule for months is an employee.
The practical rule for an expat or a diaspora owner: keep casual garden work genuinely casual, or hire properly and budget for it. If you have already been paying the same man every Saturday for a year, get advice before assuming you are fine — the obligations are retroactive.
PRECAPI: The Social Security Number That Surprises People
If the household regime applies, the gardener should be enrolled in IGSS-PRECAPI, the special social-security programme for household workers, running since 2009. Our PRECAPI page is specific, and the specifics are what people get wrong:
- It is not a percentage of the worker’s actual salary, and it is not paid monthly.
- It is a fixed quota calculated on the non-agricultural minimum wage base (Q4,002.28 in 2026), paid quarterly in advance at Banrural.
- In 2026: employer Q303.66 per quarter (~$40 USD ), worker Q151.83, Q455.49 per quarter combined (~$60 USD ) — roughly Q152 a month between the two, about Q101.22 a month for the employer share.
- Paying a higher salary does not raise the quota.
- If your gardener works for several families, that page advises against duplicating affiliation: one family pays the full quota and the others should contribute financially rather than each opening their own file. Ask him before enrolling him.
Our domestic worker page also notes that PRECAPI is voluntary — domestic work was historically left outside the mandatory IGSS regime, and there is no formal IGSS fine for not enrolling. It frames affiliation as a labour-rights obligation you should honour rather than one that will be enforced against you.
Who Supplies the Tools and Materials
Settle this before the price, because it is where surprise charges come from.
- A professional gardener brings his basic tools: machete, pruning shears, rake and, depending on the case, a lawnmower.
- Motorised equipment — petrol mower, chainsaw, blower — belongs to the company or to a gardener with a crew. A very informal gardener may expect you to provide it.
- Inputs — fertiliser, soil, plants, turf, spraying products — are quoted separately; ask who pays for them.
- Green waste collection — confirm whether the gardener hauls the cuttings away or leaves them for you to arrange with the rubbish service.
Ask in writing what the price includes. A vague quote is the door through which surprise charges for the fertiliser or the haulage arrive.
How to Hire a Gardener
- Define what you need — regular maintenance, a heavy clean-up of a neglected garden, or a project like turfing or design. The billing model follows from that.
- Quote with 2-3 gardeners or companies — with no published tariff, comparison is the only way to know whether a price is fair.
- Make them see the garden before quoting — a quote without a site visit is a guess. Distrust a closed price given over the phone for a garden nobody has seen.
- For a monthly contract, put it in writing — how many visits, what tasks are covered, what is excluded.
- Ask for references from companies and crews — gardens they currently maintain that you can see or call about.
- Confirm who supplies motorised tools and inputs before agreeing the price.
- Decide the legal shape deliberately — contractor or household employee — rather than drifting into one.
Red Flags
- Gives a closed price over the phone for a large garden he has never seen.
- Will not put the monthly contract in writing — visits, tasks, inputs.
- Quotes far below everyone else — ask whether tools, fertiliser or waste haulage will be billed separately later.
- Offers height pruning with no safety equipment or clear experience. This is dangerous work.
- Has no verifiable references and no gardens you can look at.
- Changes the price constantly or adds unagreed extras mid-job.
What a Gardener Earns
If your question is how much do they make rather than how much do they charge:
| Measure | Monthly amount |
|---|---|
| Average reported salary (Computrabajo, puesto Jardinero/a, 51 salaries, consulted 21 Sep 2026) | Q3,574 (~$467 USD ) |
| Reported range | Q1,496-5,000 (~$196 USD to ~$654 USD ) |
The average reported gardener salary is Q3,574 a month across 51 reported salaries on Computrabajo Guatemala, with a reported range of Q1,496 to Q5,000 (puesto Jardinero/a; the portal stamps its last update 15 September 2026 and the page was consulted on 21 September 2026). The reported average sits below the full-time legal minimum wage (Q4,252.28/month, CE1), and many payroll gardeners earn close to that minimum plus the statutory benefits — Aguinaldo, Bono 14, IGSS. A self-employed gardener has no fixed salary: his income tracks how many gardens he maintains a week and whether he works on monthly contracts or loose visits.
2026 legal floor: the average and range above are what is reported in job adverts — they include informal and part-time posts — not what the law permits paying in a formal employment relationship. The 2026 statutory minimum wage for a full-time job is Q4,252.28/month in the Guatemala department (CE1: Q4,002.28 base salary + Q250 incentive bonus) and Q4,066.90/month in the rest of the country (CE2: Q3,816.90 + Q250), per Acuerdo Gubernativo 256-2025 (official table by sector and economic zone). Paying less on a payroll is a labour infraction.
Note the gap worth seeing: the reported average of Q3,574 sits below the CE1 household minimum of Q4,252.28. That is what the reported market pays, not what the law requires of a household employer.
Other Trades — Quick Comparison
| Trade | What they do | How they charge |
|---|---|---|
| Gardener | Garden maintenance, pruning, turfing | Per day, per visit, or monthly contract |
| Mason (albañil) | Construction, plaster, flooring, edging | Day rate or per m² |
| Plumber | Pipe, drains, water and irrigation lines | Per service |
| Electrician | Wiring, garden lighting | Per point or per project |
| Pest control | Spraying, termites, garden pests | Per treatment or plan |
| Nanny | The other household role with the same legal regime | Hourly, daily, full-time |
How to Negotiate
- Quote with three gardeners before talking about a discount. Without comparison you cannot know the price is high.
- Ask for both quotes — per visit and monthly — and compare. On the ranges here a monthly plan is not automatically the cheaper route for a small garden.
- Bundle the big jobs — heavy pruning plus a clean-up in one engagement rather than several visits.
- Buy the inputs yourself — fertiliser, soil, plants — so you are paying only for labour.
- Negotiate in the dry season — grass grows faster in the rains and demand is higher; in the dry months there is more willingness to move on a monthly fee.
What not to do: do not hire height pruning on lowest price alone. It is dangerous work and a bad cut can damage the tree, a building or a cable. And do not pay a full monthly contract in advance — the norm is to pay at the end of each visit or at month end.
Frequently Asked Questions
How much does a gardener cost per day in Guatemala?
There is no published official rate for a self-employed gardener. As a reference, the 2026 non-agricultural daily minimum wage is Q131.58 in the Guatemala department and Q125.49 in the rest of the country (Acuerdo Gubernativo 256-2025). In practice an independent gardener charges above that floor, in an indicative Q150-300 per day depending on zone, garden size and whether he brings his own tools. Confirm with two or three gardeners.
How much does regular garden maintenance cost?
Per visit, indicatively: Q150-300 for a small garden, Q250-500 for a medium residential garden, Q400-900 for a large plot with several trees. Monthly plans run Q800-1,500 a month for a small garden on two visits, Q1,200-3,000 for a medium one, Q3,000-8,000+ for a large garden or condominium green area. A plan is not automatically cheaper — two small-garden visits quoted separately come to Q300-600, against monthly plans starting near Q800. Ask for both quotes and compare. These are reference ranges, not published prices.
Do I owe a gardener minimum wage, Bono 14 and severance?
It depends on the shape of the relationship. Our domestic worker wage page lists jardineros among the covered household roles and is explicit that it means gardeners working for one household, with multi-household contractors treated as a different category. A covered gardener is owed the full Non-Agricultural minimum wage — Q4,252.28/month in CE1 including the Q250 bonus — plus Bono 14, Aguinaldo, 15 days of paid vacation after a year, a weekly rest day, and severance of one base salary per year of service if dismissed without cause. A gardener with many clients is the other category.
Can I just pay a gardener by the day?
Yes, and it is common — our hiring guide puts the by-day market at Q150-300 a day. But it warns that continuous by-day work becomes a full de planta employment relationship, carrying the same minimum wage, Bono 14, Aguinaldo, vacation and severance obligations as a salaried hire. Occasional, genuinely independent day work is one thing; the same person on a fixed weekly schedule for months is an employee. The obligations are retroactive, so get advice before it has run for months.
What is PRECAPI and what does it cost me?
PRECAPI is the IGSS social-security programme for household workers, running since 2009. It is not a percentage of the actual salary and not paid monthly: it is a fixed quota on the non-agricultural minimum wage base (Q4,002.28), paid quarterly in advance at Banrural. In 2026 that is employer Q303.66 + worker Q151.83 = Q455.49 per quarter. Paying a higher salary does not raise it. If your gardener is already affiliated through another family, our PRECAPI page advises against duplicating — ask him first.
How much does a gardener earn per month in Guatemala?
Q3,574 a month on average across 51 reported salaries on Computrabajo Guatemala (puesto Jardinero/a, consulted 21 September 2026), with a reported range of roughly Q1,496-5,000 by experience and contract type. The reported average sits below the full-time legal minimum wage, so many payroll gardeners sit near that minimum plus statutory benefits. A self-employed gardener has no fixed salary — it depends on how many gardens he maintains each week.
Sources
- gt.computrabajo.com/salarios/jardineroa — puesto Jardinero/a: average Q3,574/month across 51 reported salaries, range Q1,496-5,000. Portal last updated 15 September 2026; consulted 21 September 2026
- Acuerdo Gubernativo 256-2025 — Guatemala 2026 minimum wage by economic zone, issued by MINTRAB and announced in the Diario de Centro América
- Editorial estimate — no published source. Billing models of Guatemala City landscaping companies, checked May 2026. No company list or sample size was kept, so the ranges are an estimate, not a measured survey
- Household employment obligations (minimum wage, Bono 14, Aguinaldo, vacation, severance, the by-day threshold) — from our own domestic worker minimum wage and hiring domestic help pages
- PRECAPI quota amounts and payment mechanics — from our own IGSS PRECAPI page
- USD conversion — Banguat reference exchange rate, read at build time
Related Guides
- Service Prices Hub — every service with real price ranges
- Tree Trimming and Removal — the municipal or INAB licence a tree needs before it comes down
- Pool Maintenance — what a pool service visit covers, and chemical prices
- How to Hire Domestic Help Legally — the full process, contract to finiquito
- Domestic Worker Minimum Wage 2026 — the legal floor and the covered roles
- IGSS PRECAPI for Household Employers — the quarterly quota and how to pay it
- Bono 14 Calculator — work out the July payment
- Aguinaldo Calculator — work out the December payment
- Minimum Wage Guatemala 2026 — the official table by sector and zone
- Nanny Costs — the same legal regime, a different role
- Elderly Caregiver Costs — also inside the household regime
Information verified September 2026 (salary data consulted 21 September 2026; the billing models and service ranges were verified May 2026). The salary and minimum wage figures are official or reported data; the gardening service prices are indicative ranges, because Guatemala has no published gardening tariff. Always confirm with 2-3 gardeners who have seen the garden, and agree in writing what the price includes. This page is informational and is not legal advice — for a household employment relationship, take advice from a Guatemalan labour lawyer. USD equivalents are computed at the live Banguat rate and are not fixed.
