Occupation / job
Gas Compressor and Gas Pumping Station Operators
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
Gas Compressor and Gas Pumping Station Operators pays $77,320 at the midpoint, 55% above the $50,020 national figure. Premiums that size are rationed by something; find out what before the salary does your thinking for you.
National employment of 3,510 makes this a small field. Small fields are relationship markets: the people already in Gas Compressor and Gas Pumping Station Operators tend to know who is hiring before the posting exists.
These roles suit people who prefer to be busy physically rather than sat still, and who value being able to find the same job in any city.
No verified preparation time is on file for Gas Compressor and Gas Pumping Station Operators. 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
From $58,580 to $91,020 is $2,703 a month, or 1.6x bottom quarter to top. An ordinary spread like this is mostly years and geography; assume you enter near the bottom of it and that closing the gap takes a career rather than a move.
At $58,580, or $28.16 an hour, the 25th percentile sits $8,560 above the $50,020 the typical American job pays. Occupations with floors this high almost always have a requirement holding them there.
Avoid it if repetitive lifting would be unsustainable, or if you need pay that rises meaningfully with time served.
There is no failure rate on this page because there is nothing honest to divide by. BLS counted 3,510 people employed as Gas Compressor and Gas Pumping Station Operators; it did not count the people who trained for it and are doing something else, and a rate built without that denominator would be a number we made up.
What the spread tells you
At 1.6x between $58,580 and $91,020 this is a normally shaped occupation. $77,320 is what the middle of Gas Compressor and Gas Pumping Station Operators earns after the years it takes to get there, which is not the same as what it offers you now.
Put in money rather than ratios: $58,580 at the 25th percentile, $77,320 at the midpoint, $91,020 at the 75th. $32,440 separates the quarter of Gas Compressor and Gas Pumping Station Operators at the bottom from the quarter at the top.
Getting to $91,020, the 75th percentile, is worth $13,700 a year more than the $77,320 midpoint and $32,440 more than the $58,580 a quarter of Gas Compressor and Gas Pumping Station Operators settle for.
The midpoint sits high inside its own range: $18,740 above the $58,580 bottom quarter but only $13,700 below the $91,020 top quarter. Most of the distance in Gas Compressor and Gas Pumping Station Operators is spent climbing out of the bottom, and once you are past the middle there is not much further to go.
Per hour at a standard full-time year that is $37.17 at the midpoint for Gas Compressor and Gas Pumping Station Operators, $28.16 at the 25th percentile and $43.75 at the 75th, against $24.04 for the typical American job.
What these figures are, and what they are not
The $77,320 figure is what employers pay employees. It is before tax and before deductions, it excludes the self-employed entirely, and it says nothing about anyone who does this work on their own account.
Treat the per-hour figure as a conversion. It assumes a flat full-time year against $77,320 because we have no verified record of unpaid hours or out-of-pocket costs for this work, and we would rather convert honestly than adjust invented ones.
How this is calculated · Self-employment failure rates · What credentials cost and pay back · Look up something else