Benchmarking Information Guides Proactive, Data-Driven Decisions
The green industry moves fast. Don’t make critical staffing and compensation decisions based upon guesswork. Respondents who complete the survey receive high-impact insights to assist in strategic business decisions, like identifying compensation strategies, and ensuring competitive compensation and benefits are being offered.
The AmericanHort Salary and Benefits Benchmark Survey
Essential data on salary, staffing, and benefits will be captured in three distinct areas: company demographics, staffing and benefits, and salary.
This is not just another survey; it is the key to real data and comparisons that can inform your business decisions and ensure that you are attracting and retaining high-quality employees and managing costs effectively.
Benefits of Participation
By completing the AmericanHort Salary & Benefits Benchmark Survey you will:
- Obtain a Full Industry Report: This comprehensive report includes expert analysis of compensation, staffing and industry benefit trends, including detailed statistics on salaries and benefits for executive-level positions.
- Gain Stronger Hiring & Retention Strategies: Use the comprehensive insights provided to help create successful hiring strategies to retain and attract qualified candidates—critical in today’s competitive labor market.
- Develop Improved Planning & Budgeting: Benchmarking drives business decisions and strategy. Knowing where you stand in the industry can aid you in planning successful business policies and budget development.
- Access to Personalized Company Compensation Comparison Report: Free to eligible AmericanHort Premium members who complete the survey, this report helps businesses to understand where wages and benefits are competitive and where adjustments can be made to attract and retain the top performers. This report can be purchased for $899 by all eligible AmericanHort members who complete the survey, but it is NOT available to non-members.
Data Collection Will Begin Again in 2026
Get on the list so you know when the next survey will begin.
Membership Provides Exclusive Access
Participation is for members only and is free with your AmericanHort membership. Not a member?
Participation
Your time matters. To simplify the process, we have guidance to let you know what to expect and explain what to prepare ahead for the survey. There is also a downloadable guide [link] for your convenience.
How to Participate
The survey is open to participants from August 18-September 26, 2025. To participate, simply follow these steps:
- Set up a profile account in the Industry Insights portal if you do not have one already.
- If you already have a profile from the previous survey participation, just use your same email and password to login.
- Click on “Begin Survey” and you will then be prompted to answer the survey questions.
- Save your data by using the “Save” button as you navigate through the survey questions. You may save and return to the survey to complete it any time prior to the closing date.
- Please allow approximately 25 minutes or less to complete the survey. It is important to note if you have participated in previous years, some data will automatically be populated for you, saving you time.
- Providing as much data as possible for each job title will be helpful in the final report.
- You can provide information on up to 34 distinct job titles across full-time, part-time, and seasonal employees.
If you need assistance with the online survey, please contact Jake Hackathorne of Industry Insights at [email protected].
Preparing for the Survey
The survey is straightforward, and all responses are confidential and secure. Payroll information can be easily updated through a spreadsheet available for download in the survey portal.
If you have not participated in this survey previously, it may take 25 minutes to complete depending on how many job titles you include. The more data that can be captured about each job title, the more useful the final report will be. You may enter and exit the survey portal at any time before the deadline. If you have responded to past surveys, your participation will be easier as some data fields are retained in your profile, which will save you time depending on the number of new job titles or changes you may provide.
You will be asked to provide:
- Size of production/field/retail area, and number of locations
- Types of customers you sell to
- Number of FTEs employed during peak season
- Number of workers part of H-2A or H-2B programs
- Overall revenue for the last calendar or fiscal year
- Overall payroll cost
- Average base salary (merit + COLA) for the past year and anticipated for the next year for executive, full-time manager and non-manager levels, part-time, and seasonal employees
- Benefits you offer
- Terms of 401K match if offered
- Types of health and medical plans offered, and percentage of premium paid by company
- The importance employees place on these benefits based on employee type
- Benefits used to attract and retain employees
- Types of paid time off offered
- Percentage of office staff working onsite versus remotely
AmericanHort has created a downloadable document with this information for your reference.
If you have questions regarding the AmericanHort Salary & Benefit Survey & Industry Report can be directed to Karen Limbert, VP Operations & Finance, AmericanHort at [email protected] or call 614-487-1117.
Open to members and non-members, this survey will take approximately 25 minutes for first-time participants. By investing a little time this year, subsequent surveys will be even easier and will continue to provide you with actionable data.
Past participants, when you log in to your profile, data will automatically populate—all you need to do is update job positions. This will save you time completing the survey.
Financial Benchmarking
AmericanHort provides other opportunities to obtain industry data to guide your compensation and benefits decisions.
The AmericanHort Salary and Benefits Benchmark Report
Once the survey has ended, data is compiled into a full benchmark report (available in early December) that will provide you with metrics like the following examples.
Surveys are conducted by:
Report Details
Comprehensive data in the full Salary & Benefits Benchmark Report can guide your strategy.