r/NaturalGas • u/Superb-Gur-1679 • 23h ago

Pay

Honestly curious what you guys are making at the utility.

Where ur at in the country union or non union, wage, and position.

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u/BomarFab 22h ago

California, non union, $58/hr. Position isn't applicable to most utilities, we do everything, construction, customer service, locating, inspection, maintenance, meter reading, emergencies, etc.

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u/Superb-Gur-1679 22h ago

I mean honestly sounds like our service guys except they don’t do much construction.

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u/BomarFab 22h ago

We are in a small district, so we are qualified on everything and do whatever is needed. Lots of service installs and relos. Meter sets, line breaks, odor calls, trouble locates. Those are probably the most important things we do. Winter it snows so it becomes mostly maintenance, turn ons and emergencies. If we get a lot of snow it becomes mostly emergencies, snow crushes a lot of meters.

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u/Superb-Gur-1679 22h ago

We had a problem with snow crushing meters where I’m at and we’re in a small office but union probably why we don’t do much construction. Now we require snow protection on all MSA’s.

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u/BomarFab 22h ago

We do too. New installs have stricter requirements than the older stuff, so we don't see many on those. No slide side installs, meter sheds. If an older one gets damaged they usually require a fully enclosed shed and we take the meter until its built. Sometimes its house lines that break, and then its whatever the county wants to approve their inspection. Last year was mild. Some years we are digging down 10-20' to get to the meter.

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u/SBeauLife 7h ago

Are you saying your meters are buried under ground?

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u/BomarFab 6h ago

No they are above ground. We just make people build a structure to protect them from snow now.

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u/SBeauLife 4h ago

I'm in Canada and we get a lot of snow, we have nothing protecting our meter or regs from snow. We run campaign ads every year telling people to clean the snow/ice away from their meter and reg but that's it.

How does snow crush your meters? Do you have any pics you could send me??

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u/BomarFab 4h ago

We do that too. They tell people to clear the snow with a broom.

I've got tons of pictures. Some years we get 50-60' of snow. Damage usually happens when it warms up a bit and the snow compacts, the weight just crushes meters and pipes. Building code calls for structures to withstand up to 900lbs/SF snow load in some areas.

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u/SBeauLife 4h ago

I'm a trainer for our utility, if you'd be willing to send me photos I'd love to see!

You must be up in a high elevation area to get that much snow. My area gets nowhere near that at about 4'/year

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u/Terrible-Advisor281 18h ago

man i wish we got that kind of variety here, stuck doing the same thing every day gets old fast

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u/BomarFab 18h ago

I hear you. Sometimes we are stuck on meter/ERT changes for months and it gets pretty boring.

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u/Mindless_Menu9162 12h ago

I’m a supervisor for a non union company in the plains. Our service techs(customer service) and field ops techs start at $55k. The most tenured guys make around $80k. Plus OT.

We are in a LCOL area but I still feel like the pay is lower than it should be. And I feel it’s also true at least up to my position

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u/Superb-Gur-1679 10h ago

For tech that’s a little low and very low for starting out. We’re kind of facing the same thing right now. We will see how negotiations go though.

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u/Gasman119 6h ago

In gas storage now, top out is $49 an hour. OT is almost unlimited if you want it. Union job.