Are tree removal costs rising?
Yes, and faster than general inflation. The crews who do this work earn+45% more per hour than they did in 2015 —3.8% a year, every year, for a decade.
Labor is roughly 55% of what a removal costs, so that feeds almost directly into your quote. Below is the actual series, and what it has done in your state.
Price your own tree at current rates — the calculator applies your state's figure from this same data.
- 2015 mean
- $17.89
- 2025 mean
- $25.94
- Total change
- +45%
- Per year
- 3.8%
What the flat year tells you
Wages stalled between 2019 and 2020 and then climbed hard. That is the pandemic: crews stopped hiring, then spent the following four years competing for the ones who stayed. The rise since 2020 is steeper than anything in the five years before it.
This is why a quote you were given two years ago is not a useful reference point today, and why “my neighbor paid $800 for the same tree” usually is not either.
Where it moved most
The national figure hides an enormous spread. MN crews earn+95% more than in 2015; NE crews, +13%.
| State | 2015 | 2025 | Change |
|---|---|---|---|
| MN | $17.99 | $35.03 | +95% |
| UT | $15.46 | $28.79 | +86% |
| OR | $19.53 | $35.40 | +81% |
| OH | $13.78 | $24.63 | +79% |
| WA | $18.05 | $32.20 | +78% |
| SD | $14.79 | $26.14 | +77% |
| MO | $16.10 | $27.44 | +70% |
| PA | $16.81 | $28.58 | +70% |
| VT | $17.34 | $29.35 | +69% |
| FL | $13.09 | $21.96 | +68% |
| WY | $14.55 | $24.19 | +66% |
| KS | $14.94 | $24.64 | +65% |
| CA | $18.86 | $30.58 | +62% |
| CO | $16.04 | $25.97 | +62% |
| AR | $14.01 | $22.68 | +62% |
| NC | $15.63 | $25.01 | +60% |
| WV | $15.26 | $23.73 | +56% |
| WI | $18.07 | $28.02 | +55% |
| ME | $16.18 | $24.96 | +54% |
| IL | $21.22 | $32.14 | +51% |
| KY | $13.99 | $21.00 | +50% |
| OK | $15.45 | $23.09 | +49% |
| NJ | $22.67 | $33.54 | +48% |
| TX | $14.13 | $20.44 | +45% |
| GA | $15.79 | $22.41 | +42% |
| NY | $21.59 | $30.35 | +41% |
| IN | $16.31 | $22.64 | +39% |
| VA | $17.27 | $23.94 | +39% |
| ID | $17.67 | $24.45 | +38% |
| RI | $21.66 | $29.40 | +36% |
| MS | $15.83 | $21.42 | +35% |
| MA | $23.49 | $31.78 | +35% |
| AZ | $18.38 | $24.48 | +33% |
| NH | $20.78 | $27.28 | +31% |
| MD | $18.36 | $23.80 | +30% |
| MI | $20.70 | $26.75 | +29% |
| TN | $17.77 | $22.87 | +29% |
| CT | $20.90 | $26.77 | +28% |
| LA | $18.44 | $23.29 | +26% |
| HI | $22.80 | $28.18 | +24% |
| AL | $17.71 | $21.01 | +19% |
| MT | $24.32 | $28.13 | +16% |
| IA | $18.79 | $21.58 | +15% |
| NE | $18.72 | $21.15 | +13% |
44 states. BLS does not publish this occupation for every state in every year, and states missing from either endpoint are left out rather than guessed at.
Read the small states with caution. Where only a few hundred people do this work, the survey sample is thin and the figure bounces year to year by more than any real wage moved — roughly half the states show at least one such jump. The national series is built from all of them and is far steadier, which is why the headline above uses it.
Method and source
Figures are the mean hourly wage for Tree Trimmers and Pruners (SOC 37-3013)from the Bureau of Labor Statistics Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics program, one release per year.
From 2020 onward BLS publishes only the annual mean for this occupation. Hourly rates for those years are that figure divided by 2,080 — the year-round full-time basis BLS itself uses to compute it. Across the 249 state-years where both figures are published, the derived rate matches the published one on every row.
BLS OEWS tables· Data updated · how we turn this into a price
Use this data
The full series, every state and year, as a CSV. It is public BLS data and you are welcome to it — a link back is appreciated but not required.
Download CSV