In this post, we look at the weekly overtime (OT) hours typically worked by those who work in Derrick, rotary drill, and services unit operators, oil, gas, and mining occupations.
Many of the employees that work in these jobs are not exempt from FLSA overtime pay and earn 1.5 times pay for hours worked over 40 in a given week.
The tabulations below are based on U.S. BLS survey data. The BLS job title groups are insightful, generally containing more specific job titles with similar knowledge, skills, and abilities (KSA), but can be more broad than a particular company’s job title listing. Also, some companies may have the job title listed here as exempt from FLSA or state OT due to their specific job assignments. The BLS does not make a distinction as to if the job title is exempt or non-exempt from OT.
| Occupational Group Title |
Percent of OT Workers |
Average Hours of OT |
1 Out of Every 4 (25%) OT Workers Works at Least |
| Derrick, rotary drill, and services unit operators, oil, gas, and mining |
66.67% |
25.6 |
80 |
U.S. BLS data indicates that approximately 66.67% of Derrick, rotary drill, and services unit operators, oil, gas, and mining workers work overtime hours in a given week. On average, these workers that have FLSA overtime work approximately 25.6 hours a week in OT. The average regular or straight time pay rate of these workers in the U.S. is approximately 32.10 an hour. The average FLSA OT rate, not including supplemental pay such as non-discretionary bonus pay is 48.14 an hour.
Source: BLS (CPS March)
The number of job openings in Texas for “petroleum engineers” and “geological and petroleum technicians” decreased from 595 in December 2014 to 517 in January 2015, while the searcher-to-job opening ratio also increased from 0.78 to 1.07 in the same span.
