Pay · 51-4191
Heat Treating Equipment Setters, Operators, and Tenders, Metal and Plastic earn $48,750 a year at the midpoint
Across roughly 14,000 people in this work, the midpoint is $48,750 a year, with most starting near $40,660.
National figures for heat treating equipment setters, operators, and tenders, metal and plastic, 51-4191, from the 2025 Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics survey.
- Read the spread, not the middle. The median is the midpoint across everyone in the occupation, most of them years into the work. A beginner starts nearer the 10th to 25th percentile, which is why the spread is published alongside it.
- What the figure counts. The figure counts base pay plus tips, commissions and production bonuses. It leaves out the self-employed, unpaid family workers, private household workers, and the value of benefits or profit sharing.
- The annual figure is arithmetic. For hourly occupations the annual figure is the hourly rate times 2080 hours. It is a calculation, not observed earnings: part time is the norm in retail and food service.
- Where you live moves it more than your resume does. National figures. A state or metro area can sit far from the national number, and that gap is usually larger than any difference a resume makes.
- Not in these numbers. Growth and annual openings are not in this dataset. They come from the separate Employment Projections tables, where an opening is a modelled ten year average and not a posted vacancy.
Source: U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics, 2025. Retrieved through the BLS Public Data API on 2026-08-13. bls.gov/oes “BLS.gov cannot vouch for the data or analyses derived from these data after the data have been retrieved from BLS.gov.”
Heat treating equipment operator earnings, from starting pay to the highest 10%
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Heat treating equipment operator pay rate, hourly and yearly
Starts at this job’s median. Change the rate or the hours; a full-time year is 40 hours for 52 weeks.
A resume for heat treating equipment setters, operators, and tenders, metal and plastic
Name the job in the builder and the duties, skills and credentials it is screened on are written in for you.
- Read production schedules and work orders to determine processing sequences, furnace temperatures, and heat cycle requirements for objects to be heat-treated.
- Recorded times that parts are removed from furnaces to document that objects have attained specified temperatures for specified times.
- Adjusted controls to maintain temperatures and heating times, using thermal instruments and charts, dials and gauges of furnaces, and color of stock in furnaces to make setting determinations.
This page includes information from the O*NET 31.0 Database by the U.S. Department of Labor, Employment and Training Administration (USDOL/ETA). Used under the CC BY 4.0 license. O*NET® is a trademark of USDOL/ETA. The owner of tiersi.com has modified all or some of this information. USDOL/ETA has not approved, endorsed, or tested these modifications.
Heat treating equipment operator wages, state by state
The 31 states where the most people do this work, of 37 with a published figure: their medians range by 1.65 times. Figures are the 2025 survey.
| State | Median a year | Where most start | 10th to 90th | Employed |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Washington | $61,990 | $48,340 | $48,340 — $104,660 | 140 |
| Oregon | $60,280 | $44,420 | $44,420 — $82,070 | 240 |
| Colorado | $58,300 | $45,780 | $45,780 — $80,280 | 100 |
| Virginia | $55,070 | $41,000 | $41,000 — $83,360 | 190 |
| Tennessee | $54,930 | $39,980 | $39,980 — $59,210 | 670 |
| New York | $52,940 | $37,750 | $37,750 — $64,560 | 280 |
| Ohio | $52,880 | $39,550 | $39,550 — $70,770 | 1,040 |
| New Hampshire | $52,250 | $42,980 | $42,980 — $70,720 | 90 |
| Oklahoma | $51,680 | $42,070 | $42,070 — $78,030 | 120 |
| Arizona | $50,660 | $39,740 | $39,740 — $73,920 | 160 |
| Michigan | $50,560 | $40,790 | $40,790 — $61,990 | 1,190 |
| California | $50,150 | $42,950 | $42,950 — $69,670 | 770 |
| Iowa | $49,760 | $40,300 | $40,300 — $63,340 | 120 |
| New Jersey | $49,640 | $37,700 | $37,700 — $74,340 | 440 |
| Massachusetts | $49,280 | $42,360 | $42,360 — $83,010 | 250 |
| Wisconsin | $49,100 | $42,300 | $42,300 — $62,990 | 470 |
| Pennsylvania | $48,800 | $37,770 | $37,770 — $63,890 | 1,520 |
| Missouri | $47,980 | $42,060 | $42,060 — $64,000 | 140 |
| Utah | $47,860 | $37,820 | $37,820 — $68,950 | 90 |
| Florida | $47,370 | $38,480 | $38,480 — $60,090 | 150 |
| Kentucky | $47,090 | $37,150 | $37,150 — $63,660 | 340 |
| Alabama | $46,920 | $35,190 | $35,190 — $88,350 | 170 |
| Indiana | $46,860 | $32,090 | $32,090 — $63,380 | 990 |
| South Carolina | $46,750 | $37,550 | $37,550 — $58,140 | 290 |
| North Carolina | $46,660 | $36,260 | $36,260 — $60,730 | 320 |
| Illinois | $45,340 | $34,760 | $34,760 — $63,180 | 850 |
| Connecticut | $44,350 | $35,080 | $35,080 — $62,080 | 320 |
| Georgia | $44,050 | $36,960 | $36,960 — $65,660 | 250 |
| Texas | $41,690 | $24,440 | $24,440 — $76,160 | 1,450 |
| Minnesota | $41,100 | $38,230 | $38,230 — $57,050 | 90 |
| Arkansas | $37,590 | $32,610 | $32,610 — $52,110 | 200 |
Ranked 546 of 788 by median pay
Better paid than 31% of the occupations in the survey.
- 544 Pipelayers $49,000
- 545 Mixing and Blending Machine Setters, Operators, and Tenders $48,990
- 546 Heat Treating Equipment Setters, Operators, and Tenders, Metal and Plastic $48,750
- 547 Rock Splitters, Quarry $48,740
- 548 Court, Municipal, and License Clerks $48,700
Examples
Resumes made for this kind of work.
Real sheets, filled in end to end — for this job and the ones beside it.
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Questions people often ask
What is a heat treating equipment operator’s yearly income?
A heat treating equipment operator makes a median of $48,750 a year (2025 survey). The middle half earn between $40,660 and $58,400.
What is a heat treating equipment operator’s hourly pay rate?
The median pay rate is $23.44 an hour; the average is $50,450 a year.
What is the starting pay for a heat treating equipment operator?
Starting pay is usually near the 25th percentile, $40,660 a year, and sometimes as low as the 10th, $35,180.
Which state pays heat treating equipment setters, operators, and tenders, metal and plastic the most?
Washington, with a median of $61,990 a year.
How many people work as heat treating equipment setters, operators, and tenders, metal and plastic?
About 14,000 in the United States — number 546 of 788 occupations by median pay.
Work that pays about the same
Median pay within $60 of what heat treating equipment setters, operators, and tenders, metal and plastic earn — $48,750 a year — but not always the same spread.
- $10 less Rock Splitters, Quarry $48,740median a year 10th percentile: $37,340 90th percentile: $67,710
- $50 less Court, Municipal, and License Clerks $48,700median a year 10th percentile: $36,300 90th percentile: $73,820
- $60 less Prepress Technicians and Workers $48,690median a year 10th percentile: $35,810 90th percentile: $66,080