re: What are operators paid hourly, and how does that compute to annually?

I have no idea if you're trolling or not. I'll assume you aren't.

Let's say at Plant "X" the top out pay for Ops is at $41 an hour. So, the annual base pay, based off of the shift schedule of 36 hours one week and 48 hours the next:

Week 1: $41 per hour x 36 hours: $1476

Week 2: $41 per hour x 40 hours and 8 hours of OT at time and a half: $61.50 x 8: $1640 + $492 = $2132

26 weeks per year at $1476: $38,376
26 weeks per year at $2132: $55,432

So, base salary is at $93,808 with working every other week of the 8 hours built in OT of a shift schedule.

Throw in unscheduled OT at time and a half and some plants playing double time, and the salary amount I referenced above goes up rather quickly.