Occupation / job
Earth Drillers, Except Oil and Gas
Median annual pay. Half earn less than this.
Hourly at a standard 2,080-hour year. We do not yet have unpaid-time or cost data for this, so this is not an adjusted figure.
The middle half. A quarter earn below this range.
Source: BLS Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics, May 2025 · view
What this figure cannot tell you
It covers people EMPLOYED in this occupation. Anyone who trained for it and was never hired is not in the median above, and neither is anyone doing the work self-employed. No verified count of qualified people exists for this occupation, so this page shows none rather than an estimate. Why that matters · The occupations where we could source it
Who this suits
Earth Drillers, Except Oil and Gas pays $60,190 against $50,020 across all occupations — $847 a month more. Every premium is paid for something: find out whether it is the schooling, the licence, the hours or the risk before you decide you want it.
Nationally 19,450 people do this. That is a real occupation with a thin local presence — enough that Earth Drillers, Except Oil and Gas is a career, not enough that you can assume a second employer down the road.
Extraction work suits people who will go where the deposit is, work a rotation away from home, and treat the safety regime as the actual condition of employment.
No verified preparation time is on file for Earth Drillers, Except Oil and Gas. The wage survey behind every figure on this page asks employers what they pay, not what they required, so the honest answer here is that we do not know.
Who should not do this
A quarter of Earth Drillers, Except Oil and Gas earn under $49,900 and a quarter over $72,450 — 1.5x, or $22,550 apart. Narrow spreads usually mean a pay schedule, which is stability bought at the price of upside.
The 25th percentile is $49,900, $120 above the $50,020 typical American job. A floor above the national midpoint is rare, and it is worth more than an equivalent amount of upside.
Avoid it if working a rotation away from home would not be sustainable for the people you live with.
You will not find a "what share make it" figure here. 19,450 is a headcount of the employed, which is a numerator without a denominator — everyone who qualified and never got hired is missing from it, and we will not estimate them to complete a percentage.
What the spread tells you
Top quarter to bottom quarter is 1.5x. In a band that narrow, $60,190 is a genuinely representative number for Earth Drillers, Except Oil and Gas and the main variable left is where you live.
In cash terms the middle half of Earth Drillers, Except Oil and Gas runs $49,900 to $72,450 — $22,550 a year between the 25th and 75th percentiles, against a midpoint of $60,190.
Getting to $72,450, the 75th percentile, is worth $12,260 a year more than the $60,190 midpoint and $22,550 more than the $49,900 a quarter of Earth Drillers, Except Oil and Gas settle for.
The climb from $60,190 to $72,450 is $12,260; the drop to $49,900 is $10,290. A little more room above the midpoint than below it is the normal shape for Earth Drillers, Except Oil and Gas and for most paid work, and it is the reason the median is the honest summary rather than the average.
Per hour at a standard full-time year that is $28.93 at the midpoint for Earth Drillers, Except Oil and Gas, $23.99 at the 25th percentile and $34.83 at the 75th, against $24.04 for the typical American job.
What these figures are, and what they are not
Employers reported these wages for people already working as Earth Drillers, Except Oil and Gas. The self-employed are excluded, so $60,190 does not describe an independent doing the same work.
The hourly number on this page is $60,190 divided by a 2,080-hour year and nothing more. We hold no unpaid-hours or cost data for Earth Drillers, Except Oil and Gas, so it is arithmetic rather than an effective rate.
How this is calculated · Self-employment failure rates · What credentials cost and pay back · Look up something else