Salary and Outlook

According to the US Department of Labor, there are 11,100 people employed as pump operators, except wellhead pumpers in the United States. The median annual salary is $48,100. Entry level employees earn approximately $30,200 per year and senior employees earn approximately $81,290 per year.

Estimates do not include other potential benefits such as health insurance, overtime pay, or retirement benefits that may be offered by employers.

Job Duties

• Collect and deliver sample solutions for laboratory analysis.
• Pump two or more materials into one tank to blend mixtures.
• Monitor gauges and flowmeters and inspect equipment to ensure that tank levels, temperatures, chemical amounts, and pressures are at specified levels, reporting abnormalities as necessary.
• Record operating data such as products and quantities pumped, stocks used, gauging results, and operating times.
• Plan movement of products through lines to processing, storage, and shipping units, using knowledge of interconnections and capacities of pipelines, valve manifolds, pumps, and tankage.
• Turn valves and start pumps to start or regulate flows of substances such as gases, liquids, slurries, or powdered materials.
• Communicate with other workers, using signals, radios, or telephones, to start and stop flows of materials or substances.
• Connect hoses and pipelines to pumps and vessels prior to material transfer, using hand tools.
• Tend vessels that store substances such as gases, liquids, slurries, or powdered materials, checking levels of substances by using calibrated rods or by reading mercury gauges and tank charts.
• Clean, lubricate, and repair pumps and vessels, using hand tools and equipment.
• Read operating schedules or instructions or receive verbal orders to determine amounts to be pumped.
• Test materials and solutions, using testing equipment.
• Tend auxiliary equipment such as water treatment and refrigeration units, and heat exchangers.
• Add chemicals and solutions to tanks to ensure that specifications are met.

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