How Much Do Power Plant Operators Make in 2021 (including Starting Salary)

Stan T.Career, SalaryLeave a Comment

Annual Salary, Salary Range, and Highest Paying States and Industries

Power Plant Operators

Power Plant Operators control, operate, or maintain machinery to generate electric power. Includes auxiliary equipment operators.

Salary
$81890
Becoming One
Easy
Education
No degree required
Job Satisfaction
Job Growth

Personality
Interest Match



Table of contents
  1. Average salary
  2. Starting salary
  3. Salary rank
  4. Salary range
  5. Highest paying states
  6. Highest paying industries

Average salary

Annual salary
$81890 per year
Hourly wage
$39 per hour

Starting salary

Entry-level annual salary
$48,090 to $65,300 per year
Entry-level hourly wage
$23 to $31 per hour

Entry-level Power Plant Operators with little to no experience can expect to make anywhere between $48,090 to $65,300 per year or $23 to $31 per hour. Similar to any other job, their salary will increase as they gain experience.

Salary rank

Salary rank
B

We wanted to make it easy for our readers to compare the salary of Power Plant Operators to all the other careers out there. So we created Salary Rank. We compared the salary of all careers then we gave them a rank of A, B, C, or D depending on where their average salary sit in comparison to other careers.

Salary range

Level Hourly Annual
Highest (Top 10%) $54 $111,470
Senior (Top 25%) $48 $99,890
Middle (Mid 50%) $41 $84,650
Junior (Bottom 25%) $31 $65,300
No experience (Bottom 10%) $23 $48,090

Highest paying states

State Hourly Annual
OR $49 $102,390
WA $48 $99,720
CA $46 $95,740
ND $45 $93,510
NJ $44 $91,700
MT $44 $90,470
NV $43 $90,460
HI $43 $90,410
NY $43 $89,700
MN $43 $89,580

Another simple way to increase your salary as a Power Plant Operator is to move to a higher paying state. However moving to a higher paying state like OR doesn’t guarantee that you will make more because the expenses at OR might be much higher than where you are currently living at right now.

According to BLS, the highest paid Power Plant Operators are in the states of OR, WA, CA, ND and NJ.

Highest paying industries

Salary by industry Annual Hourly
Natural Gas Distribution $103730 $49.87
Federal Executive Branch $94970 $45.66
Commercial and Industrial Machinery and Equipment Repair and Maintenance $85440 $41.08
Electric Power Generation, Transmission and Distribution $84030 $40.40
Management of Companies and Enterprises $83430 $40.11
Local Government $77150 $37.09
State Government $76870 $36.96
Waste Treatment and Disposal $75490 $36.29
Architectural, Engineering, and Related Services $74530 $35.83
Pulp, Paper, and Paperboard Mills $71920 $34.58
Water, Sewage and Other Systems $68190 $32.78
Colleges, Universities, and Professional Schools $64620 $31.07
Facilities Support Services $63510 $30.53
General Medical and Surgical Hospitals $62300 $29.95
Psychiatric and Substance Abuse Hospitals $44980 $21.63

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