re: How much do Plant Operators make around the Lake Charles - Beaumont area?

You probably don’t even need that P tech degree. They’re handing out operator jobs like hot cakes nowadays. We’ve been bringing in kids with hardly any experience lately just for them to leave for another plant after 6 months. The plants are like the college transfer portal now, grass is always greener on the other side

Agree wit this...Breaking 200 is not dat hard...I'm at 190 and I stay away from OT but we had a Unit Start Up plus a Turn Around this year...It Sucks!!! Plus our Plant is Union...

Well I can’t give you a reason why I did something that I didn’t do. But I can take a guess at a reason as to why you find this so hard to believe. The reason is you’re jealous of what other people make and your form of coping with that is convincing yourself that they’re not actually making that kind of money.

Poobear????

Sounds about right.

Make a whole lot more than some sissy engineer.

Last two years I have made over 200 could not tell you last time i made less than 165

All depends on the unit. I work in a large unit that’s relatively new and automated. 2 guys outside in unit. Console operator in control room

Not true. I try to stay away from a lot of overtime and usually let the younger guys get it. Many people where I’m at make over $200k a year. Hell with the amount of holidays that fall on a regular shift plus some minor vacation coverage 180-190 is an easy yearly average.

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From the information I have gathered the average pay is from mid to low $30’s to start and then high 40’s to mid $50’s top out. Some might be slightly more or less. Usually, the non union plants pay a bit more in an effort to keep unions away. That’s true for Louisiana and Texas from what I’ve seen. Yearly pay is dependent on the amount of overtime as people have said but it’s fairly easy to make $150+ when you’re at $50 an hour. Once you factor in built in overtime and holidays you work you only need like 3 or 4 days of overtime a month to go well over $150k a year.

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Friend's son works as on operator at Exxon in Mont Belvieu and this seems consistent with what I'm told.

You’re not taking into account all of the pay practices for a job like that. For example, one holiday worked is 32 hours just for that day. Get on a hitch where you catch Christmas Eve, Christmas Day, New Year’s Eve and New Year’s Day and you just pulled 128 hours in 4 days. Every 7 days you get a double time day in the mix. One guy I work with was trying to hit $300k and we had free rein on the overtime. He couldn’t get past $285k though. He worked around 1700 hours of overtime that year. Every 36 hours you work gets you an extra day at regular time. That’s like 40+ extra days of pay for that year. The yearly bonus usually counts toward your gross too, and for my plant they give you an extra stipend based on overtime hours after you get your bonus.