Pumping Up

• The country’s oil refinery workers were numbered at approximately 42,850 technicians as of May 2010, when the Bureau of Labor Statistics released its latest employment and wages report. According to the report, the pay range for oil refinery workers was at $37,580 in the 10th percentile, $60,040 in the 50th percentile and at $81,360 in the 90th percentile.
  
  

Highest State Salaries

• Alaska was home to the highest wages for oil refinery workers, beating even the 90th percentile rate with a statewide 50th percentile wage of $88,100, much higher than any other state. The second-highest state for salaries in the profession was California, with annual mean wages of $69,360. Employers in Tennessee paid their oil workers the third-highest salaries, at $66,660, followed by those in Kentucky, with rates of $65,890. For workers in fifth place Hawaii, salaries were an above average $63,760.
  
  

Seeking an Industry

• The petroleum and coal products manufacturing industry dominated most of the BLS lists for employment and salaries of oil refinery workers. The category employed the most workers (20,610) and paid a slightly higher-than-average wage of $63,080. This was actually the bureau’s second-highest paying industry for the profession; the electric power generation and transmission industry paid higher, at $67,230, but employed just a fraction of workers, 100 total. Refinery workers employed by the oil and gas extraction industry earned the third-highest salaries, at $59,770, even though this was slightly below the country’s mid-range rate.
  
  

Drilling Down

• Texas was home to the highest employment level for oil refinery workers but paid a below average Lone Star state wage of $57,080 for those in the field. Louisiana had the second-highest employment level and just topped the national rate with statewide wages of $61,050. California, in second place for highest salaries, was third for employment level. In fourth place was Oklahoma, paying a significantly lower-than-average $49,560. Pennsylvania, with the fifth-highest employment level, also paid a below average $55,160 for its oil refinery professionals.