WageTime is payroll for tree care and arborist companies: every hour is tagged aerial or ground for the comp class it belongs in, and climbers, groundmen, and storm deployments settle in one run.
There are roughly 175,035 tree-trimming businesses in the United States as of 2025 (IBISWorld estimate), most of them small crews, and the payroll behind them looks nothing like an office’s: the comp class changes with elevation, the pay changes with the seat in the truck, and the work follows the weather across state lines.
Tree work is rated for falls and struck-by injuries, so the workers’ comp class for elevated jobs runs well above ground landscaping. In California that is class 0106 for pruning and removal that require climbing or a lift, versus 0042 for ground-level landscape work. Here is the trap: the moment a job goes aerial, the ground crew on that job belongs in the tree class too. Get it wrong and the year-end audit finds it.
A crew rolls out as a climber working aloft and a groundman below dragging brush and feeding the chipper, and they earn very different money. Tree trimmers posted a median $23.59 an hour in May 2023, above the $18.21 for grounds workers overall (BLS) and the best-paid of the grounds field trades, and the climber sits well above that. Pay the two tiers, add per-tree production on removals, and every mixed week still owes overtime on the blended rate.
Arborists run on credentials that expire: the ISA Certified Arborist and Tree Worker Climber Specialist, the TCIA CTSP, state pesticide-applicator licenses, a CDL for the chip truck. ISA certifications lapse every three years without continuing-education credits. A card that quietly runs out benches your best climber or knocks the company off a bid, and a spreadsheet never sends the reminder.
A storm hits two states over and the phone rings at 2 a.m.: the crew deploys for a week or two of emergency removal and restoration, sometimes through a mutual-aid network. That means travel time on the clock, per diem and lodging, and back-to-back sixteen-hour days of overtime, all of it landing in a payroll week that looks nothing like the last one.
Trimming within ten feet of an energized line is line-clearance work under federal electrical rules, a distinct hazard handled by qualified crews. Utility right-of-way and municipal contracts set their own pay scales, and public work can demand prevailing wage and certified payroll. It is a different job with a different paycheck, often run off the same crew in the same week.
The crew’s hours live in Arborgold, SingleOps, or ArborNote, job-costed to the minute with GPS stamps and, on the good jobs, tagged 0106 or 0042 already. Then somebody exports the week and re-types it into a payroll system that has never heard of a removal job or an aerial tag. The comp-class split is the one detail unique to tree payroll, and it is the first thing lost in the export.
Every hour and wage dollar is tagged to its class of work on the run itself, so the aerial removal, the ground-only pruning, and the shop day each carry the right code and the comp audit reads from WageTime records, not a spring reconstruction.
| Job | Crew hours | Labor cost |
|---|---|---|
| Oak removal0106 Tree aerial · 47 Birch Ln | 38.0 | $1,102.00 |
| Storm-damage takedown0106 Tree, aerial · Elm Ct | 26.5 | $771.00 |
| Hedge & bed pruning0042 Ground · Maple HOA | 22.0 | $451.00 |
| Shop & equipment day0042 Ground · Yard | 8.0 | $164.00 |
Replaces the year-end scramble to guess which hours were aerial, and the audit bill that assumes the worst.
A two-tier crew pays in one run: the climber on a higher hourly or production rate, the groundman on hourly, per-tree amounts on removals, all as pay codes side by side, with overtime on the weighted-average rate when a week mixes them.
Replaces the production-pay spreadsheet that never heard of the regular rate.
Every credential your crew works under is tracked with 30, 60, and 90-day expiration alerts: ISA and CTSP cards on their three-year continuing-education cycle, applicator licenses, and the CDL for the chip truck, so nobody finds out at the gate.
| Employee | Expires | Status |
|---|---|---|
| Anna K.TCIA CTSP | Jul 31, 2026 | 9-day alert |
| Dave R.Tree Worker Climber Specialist | Aug 19, 2026 | 30-day alert |
| Luis P.Pesticide applicator license | Oct 18, 2026 | 90-day alert |
| Miguel A.ISA Certified Arborist | Mar 15, 2027 | Current |
| Sam T.CDL Class B | Feb 28, 2027 | Current |
Replaces the expired-card surprise at the gate, and the bid lost to a lapsed certification.
A storm deployment pays the way it actually runs: travel time to the work as a pay code, per diem and lodging on the same check, and back-to-back overtime days blended and checked against minimum wage in one WageTime run.
Replaces the shoebox of hotel receipts and the per-diem math done from memory after the crew comes home.
Line-clearance and right-of-way jobs pay a utility or prevailing-wage scale by classification, and WageTime handles prevailing wage and certified payroll as an add-on, scoped and priced on the demo, so the same crew can clear a private lot Monday and a municipal right-of-way Tuesday.
Replaces turning down the utility contract because certified payroll meant a second office hire.
Full-service payroll is $10 a month per person paid that month, plus $50 a month per company, with unlimited runs. No long-term contracts, no per-run charges.
Off-cycle runs and bonuses cost nothing extra. No long-term contracts; cancel anytime.
Example: 50 people paid × $10 + $50 company = $550 for the month
HR & hiring, onboarding, PTO, time tracking, benefits, and workers’ comp are optional add-ons, priced separately when you’re ready.
See a demoElevated tree work is rated higher than ground landscaping: California uses class 0106 for pruning and removal that require climbing or a lift, and 0042 for ground-level work. When any part of a job goes aerial, the ground crew on that job belongs in 0106 too. WageTime tags hours by class on every run, so the split is recorded rather than reconstructed. Codes and rates vary by state.
Set a rate per role and add per-tree or per-job production pay for removals: the climber’s higher rate, the groundman’s hourly, and any piece work all run as pay codes in one paycheck. When a week mixes them, WageTime computes overtime on the weighted-average regular rate and checks every hour against minimum wage.
Yes. WageTime tracks credentials on the employee record and alerts you 30, 60, and 90 days out. ISA Certified Arborist and CTSP credentials renew on a three-year continuing-education cycle, applicator licenses and CDLs on their own, and renewal reminders run as recurring workflow tasks, so a lapsed card never benches a climber at the job site.
Travel time to the work runs as a pay code, per diem and lodging go on the same check as configurable non-taxable earning types, and the long overtime days blend and clear minimum wage in one run. Standby and on-call are pay codes too, and the 1099 climbers you bring on for a storm settle beside your W-2 crew.
Yes, certified payroll is offered as an add-on, scoped and priced on the demo. WH-347 reports generate from the payroll run, each classification carries its own project-specific rate, and fringe is tracked per worker as cash or benefit plans. Bring the wage determination or utility scale and your crew list to the demo.
We import clock hours so there is no double entry, and the comp-class tag and removal-job code ride along instead of falling off in the export. Tell us your software on the demo and we will confirm the exact flow for your setup, including how 0106 and 0042 hours land against the right class. No app? Crews can punch on WageTime’s own GPS-stamped, geofenced mobile clock instead.
A removal job with its class split, last week’s hours from your field app, and your crew list with their cards. Twenty minutes with a payroll specialist on a live demo company: you’ll see the comp-class tagging, the climber-and-groundman blend, the credential alerts, and what a storm week actually pays.
Book a 20-minute demo