Plant operators are specialists that oversee and supervise operations in an industrial setting. As a plant operator, you are primarily responsible for controlling equipment and machinery. You may also need to respond to inquiries and issues and also perform basic troubleshooting. In addition, you are to monitor the quality of progress among the departments or units.
As a plant operator, you are to conduct regular inspections and maintenance to ensure a safe workspace for everybody. While doing this, you must implement the plant's safety policies and regulations. Furthermore, you must provide training to all vendors and contractors and ensure participation in safety meetings.
To be a plant operator, you could study environmental control technologies, general studies, or business. You could work with either a high school diploma or a bachelor's degree. Plant operators make an average salary of $38,410 per year.
How to Become a Plant Operator
There is more than meets the eye when it comes to being a plant operator. For example, did you know that they make an average of $17.96 an hour? That's $37,366 a year!
Between 2018 and 2028, the career is expected to grow -5% and produce -6,100 job opportunities across the U.S.
What Does a Plant Operator Do
There are certain skills that many plant operators have in order to accomplish their responsibilities. By taking a look through resumes, we were able to narrow down the most common skills for a person in this position. We discovered that a lot of resumes listed analytical skills, math skills and detail oriented.
How To Become a Plant Operator
If you're interested in becoming a plant operator, one of the first things to consider is how much education you need. We've determined that 26.4% of plant operators have a bachelor's degree. In terms of higher education levels, we found that 1.7% of plant operators have master's degrees. Even though some plant operators have a college degree, it's possible to become one with only a high school degree or GED.
Choosing the right major is always an important step when researching how to become a plant operator. When we researched the most common majors for a plant operator, we found that they most commonly earn high school diploma degrees or bachelor's degree degrees. Other degrees that we often see on plant operator resumes include associate degree degrees or diploma degrees.
You may find that experience in other jobs will help you become a plant operator. In fact, many plant operator jobs require experience in a role such as maintenance technician. Meanwhile, many plant operators also have previous career experience in roles such as operator or heavy equipment operator.
Plant Operator Career Paths
As you move along in your career, you may start taking on more responsibilities or notice that you've taken on a leadership role. Using our career map, a plant operator can determine their career goals through the career progression. For example, they could start out with a role such as operator, progress to a title such as foreman and then eventually end up with the title project superintendent.
Average Salary for a Plant Operator
What Am I Worth?
Top Colleges for Plant Operators
1. Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute
Troy, NY • Private
2. Stanford University
Stanford, CA • Private
3. Pennsylvania State University
University Park, PA • Private
4. University of Louisiana at Lafayette
Lafayette, LA • Private
5. SUNY College of Technology at Alfred
Alfred, NY • Private
6. Duke University
Durham, NC • Private
7. Sacred Heart University
Fairfield, CT • Private
8. University of Pennsylvania
Philadelphia, PA • Private
9. Northwestern University
Evanston, IL • Private
10. Siena Heights University
Adrian, MI • Private
Top Skills For a Plant Operator
The skills section on your resume can be almost as important as the experience section, so you want it to be an accurate portrayal of what you can do. Luckily, we've found all of the skills you'll need so even if you don't have these skills yet, you know what you need to work on. Out of all the resumes we looked through, 13.0% of plant operators listed plant equipment on their resume, but soft skills such as analytical skills and math skills are important as well.
Choose From 10+ Customizable Plant Operator Resume templates
Zippia allows you to choose from different easy-to-use Plant Operator templates, and provides you with expert advice. Using the templates, you can rest assured that the structure and format of your Plant Operator resume is top notch. Choose a template with the colors, fonts & text sizes that are appropriate for your industry.
Plant Operator Demographics
Plant Operator Gender Distribution
After extensive research and analysis, Zippia's data science team found that:
- Among plant operators, 6.5% of them are women, while 93.5% are men.
- The most common race/ethnicity among plant operators is White, which makes up 76.1% of all plant operators.
- The most common foreign language among plant operators is Spanish at 66.1%.
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Best States For a Plant Operator
Some places are better than others when it comes to starting a career as a plant operator. The best states for people in this position are Idaho, Maine, North Dakota, and Nevada. Plant operators make the most in Idaho with an average salary of $54,242. Whereas in Maine and North Dakota, they would average $52,465 and $51,658, respectively. While plant operators would only make an average of $51,339 in Nevada, you would still make more there than in the rest of the country. We determined these as the best states based on job availability and pay. By finding the median salary, cost of living, and using the Bureau of Labor Statistics' Location Quotient, we narrowed down our list of states to these four.
1. North Dakota
$51,658
Avg. Salary
2. Idaho
$54,242
Avg. Salary
3. Nevada
$51,339
Avg. Salary
How Do Plant Operator Rate Their Jobs?
Top Plant Operator Employers
Most Common Employers For Plant Operator
| Rank  | Company  | Average Salary  | Hourly Rate  | Job Openings  |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Martin Marietta | $44,063 | $21.18 | 48 |
| 2 | The Dow Chemical Company | $41,182 | $19.80 | 30 |
| 3 | Air Products | $40,739 | $19.59 | 38 |
| 4 | Kinder Morgan | $40,237 | $19.34 | 34 |
| 5 | DCP Midstream | $40,045 | $19.25 | 40 |
| 6 | Vulcan Materials | $39,387 | $18.94 | 43 |
| 7 | Chevron | $38,681 | $18.60 | 30 |
| 8 | Stericycle | $38,433 | $18.48 | 32 |
| 9 | Gopher Resource | $38,060 | $18.30 | 38 |
| 10 | Halliburton | $38,023 | $18.28 | 75 |
Plant Operator Videos
Becoming a Plant Operator FAQs
Do plant operators make good money?
No, plant operators do not make good money. The average plant operator earns $38,000 a year, with the top earners averaging between $60,000 and $80,000 a year.
There are some companies and industries that pay plant operators better than others. A Marathon petroleum plant operator, for example, averages $80,084 a year (range: $43K - $91K), which is 71% higher than the national average.
How much do operators at plants make?
Operators at plants make $38,000 a year, on average ($18.47 an hour). However, there is some variability in how much a plant operator can make, starting from as low as $27,000 a year to as high as $83,000 a year. Factors such as the location and industry impact how much an operator at a plant can make.