Occupation / job
Gas Plant 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
$87,820 is $3,150 a month above the $50,020 the typical American job pays. Differences of that size in Gas Plant Operators are held in place by a barrier — a licence, a residency, a clearance — and the barrier is the real subject of this page.
18,030 people work as Gas Plant Operators. That is enough for a functioning national market and not enough for a functioning local one — in most metros this is a few employers rather than a field you can move around inside.
These roles suit people who take a licence or a certification seriously and are comfortable being trusted with a system most people never think about.
We carry no verified training length for Gas Plant Operators — BLS reports pay, not preparation, and we will not estimate it.
Who should not do this
The quarters sit at $76,870 and $100,870, $2,000 a month apart at a ratio of 1.3x. Narrow enough that what you can expect is close to what everyone else gets.
The bottom quarter of this field earns $76,870 — $36.95 an hour, $26,850 above the $50,020 national midpoint. When even the worst-paid quarter of Gas Plant Operators is this far ahead, the barrier to entry is doing the work of keeping it there.
Avoid it if you would not want the responsibility of being the person on shift when the system goes out of range.
No failure rate is shown, and the absence is deliberate: the 18,030 figure counts people already working as Gas Plant Operators, not everyone who trained and never got hired. Without a licensing register to divide by, a rate here would be an invented denominator.
What the spread tells you
A 1.3x ratio from $76,870 to $100,870 makes $87,820 a dependable planning number. Dependable is the whole offer here — there is not much room above it.
In cash terms the middle half of Gas Plant Operators runs $76,870 to $100,870 — $24,000 a year between the 25th and 75th percentiles, against a midpoint of $87,820.
Getting to $100,870, the 75th percentile, is worth $13,050 a year more than the $87,820 midpoint and $24,000 more than the $76,870 a quarter of Gas Plant Operators settle for.
From $87,820 it is $10,950 down to the bottom quarter and $13,050 up to the top. The upper half of the range is the longer one, which is the ordinary shape for work where experience compounds.
On a 2,080-hour year the midpoint for Gas Plant Operators is $42.22 an hour. The quarters sit at $36.95 and $48.49, and the all-occupation midpoint at $24.04.
What these figures are, and what they are not
Employers reported these wages for people already working as Gas Plant Operators. The self-employed are excluded, so $87,820 does not describe an independent doing the same work.
With no unpaid-hours or cost data for Gas Plant Operators, the hourly figure is $87,820 over a 2,080-hour year — a unit conversion, not an adjustment.
How this is calculated · Self-employment failure rates · What credentials cost and pay back · Look up something else