Virginia; and West Virginia. The Southeast represents 15 percent of the responses we received this year.

Northeast — Connecticut; Delaware; Maine; Massachusetts; New Hampshire; New Jersey; New York; Pennsylvania; Rhode Island; and Vermont. The Northeast represents 8 percent of the total number of responses that we received this year.

Midwest — Illinois; Indiana; Iowa; Kansas; Michigan; Minnesota; Missouri; Montana; Nebraska; North Dakota; Ohio; South Dakota; Wisconsin; and Wyoming. The Midwest represents 12 percent of the responses we received this year.

The average is actually the median

Whenever possible, we use the median figure for determining averages. So, the “average” price for the various levels of service represents actual prices that someone is charging. Half of the reported pricing is higher than the median, and half is lower. When responses from a region were considered insufficient to give us an accurate reading, we dropped that region from our pricing survey. And whenever possible, we provide “highs” and “lows” for each level of service, to give you an idea of the ranges of pricing that we were dealing with.

When considering dollar amounts, we rounded up or down to the nearest whole dollar. We thank all of those who took part in this year’s survey who made it possible for the industry to get an idea of today’s regional trends.

In our next installment, we will take a look at labor fees that are charged by service professionals. These include not only hourly labor fees, but also the amounts that are charged for equipment repairs, seasonal jobs, and other specialty tasks.

Look for it in the June 15 edition of Service Industry News.