mowing prices?

HuskerMom wrote: We were thinking of asking Dh's 10 yr old cousin to mow our yard this summer. We were going to give her $100 (we figured it's alot to a 10 yr. old) for the summer. Well her dad asked for $20 each mowing, which is about once a week. Do you guys think $100 for the summer is too little or $20 a mowing is good?

Twelve Volt Man replied: I'd say it depends entirely on how big the yard is, and how long it takes to mow. Will she also be expected to rake or blow grass clippings, and weed-eat, too, or is it just a simple mowing job? Twenty bucks per mowing seems a bit high for a ten year old, if it's not a big job. When I was eleven, I worked at a neighborhood grocery store for $1.50 an hour, and that was only back in 1985. If your yard takes an hour, or even two, to mow, I'd say twenty dollars is unusually high. How about a flat rate of 5 dollars/hour, or something like that? If she does a good job, and is reliable, you could consider giving her an occasional tip in an amount that you feel is appropriate.

Twelve Volt Man replied: I'll add that I disagree with her father trying to get you to pay her more. In my opinion, he should be more concerned with teaching her the importance of hard work, and earning a FAIR wage, than trying to hold out for more money. I don't know all of the facts, but from your initial post, it just seemed like her dad is being a bit greedy, on her behalf.

HuskerMom replied: Our yard isn't huge, it takes about and hour to an hour and a half to mow. And it's just mowing, no raking or anything else. Since he's asking for more we're thinking of only asking her to mow once every few weeks. I feel kinda bad though cuz I'm sure she'd be perfectly happy with $100. I know if I had got $100 to mow someone's yard for a summer when I was ten I'd be so excited.

skinkybaby replied: I pay $20 a week, but I use a company and they mow, edge, and blow the clippings.


I think about 10 bucks each time is fair for a 10 year old.

CantWait replied: I think $10 a mow is fair, but $100 for the summer is to little. We mow our lawn once a week.

Twelve Volt Man replied:
Twenty dollars for an hour and a half of work comes out to about $13.50 per hour! I don't know of any 10 year-olds that earn that kind of money. I do, however, know a lot of adults who'd like to make that much. In my opinion, it's ridiculous to pay a child that much.

My3LilMonkeys replied: To be fair, this was going on 15 years ago, but I used to make $15.00 for mowing my great-grandfather's lawn. It was about a 2 1/2 hour job, plus 1/2 hour to pick up sticks and stuff beforehand and to sweep any stray grass off the sidewalk and driveway after.

I agree that $20 a mow is too much - $10 is probably a better number

kit_kats_mom replied: we pay 80 a month for the pros to come and mow, edge, trim the bushes, weed eat and blow the sidewalks and driveways. I also end up spending about 25/month on average to have the sprinkler guy over to fix the heads that the lawn people mow over and break.

I'd probably say 10 per cut is fair for a young person.

MyBabeMaddie replied: I go to mow occasionally with my brother, he charges an average of $40 a yard and the average yard takes about an hour... With the price of gas these days you gotta up your price you know? My mom's neighbor use to pay me $15 to cut her grass it took an hour but I had to bag it and weed-wack - that was just rediculous to me... I told her if she wasn't going to pay more than that I wasn't coming back so she ended up buying her own mower. I'd say if your yard is big enough $20 each time seems fair

HuskerMom replied:
But we pay for the gas and she can use our mower though. I'm thinking we should talk to her dad and offer $10 a mow. And even if Dh isn't home I'll be home to help her if she needs any help too.

Cece00 replied: We used to pay someone to cut @ our old house...VERY small yard...$10 per mow.

Miranda1127 replied: i agree w/ pp $10 a mow is fair. i pay professionals $5 (a town house size yard) to do front and back yard. it doesn't take them more than 1/2 hr to do both, so for an hour-hour and a half job is fair imo.

coasterqueen replied: It really depends on the size of yard. We have 3.5 acres and about 1.75 to 2 of that is mowable and when DH was in Louisiana we paid my uncle $100 a week to mow our yard. I'm sure it would have cost us a lot more if we went with a professional company. My uncle provided the gas, but we provided the lawn mower.

I definitely think $100 for the summer is too little.

lovemy2 replied: I would have to say $20 a WEEK is about right - unless you have a postage stamp size yard....