What North Dakota Oilfield Jobs Pay

What Hands Actually Report

Everything above this line came off job postings, which is what companies advertise. This block is different. It is reported by hands working the seat, and it is the only place on this site where the hours worked are part of the number.

Nothing shows here until a seat has at least 5 reports behind it, and it only ever appears as a range. No individual report is published, and no name, email or company is ever attached to any of it. Report what you make and it goes in the pile.

The Jobs We Will Not Put A Number On

Some seats in this basin almost never print pay. We would rather tell you that than make something up.

• Frac sand hauler ... posts percentage of load instead of a wage, almost every time
• Wireline and slickline ... 2 postings with a number in six months
• Dispatcher ... 1
• Water transfer ... no ND employer posted a wage. We wrote the page anyway
• Driller and toolpusher ... nearly always DOE
• Permit specialist ... zero, and in most outfits it is folded into dispatch rather than being its own seat at all

These get pages too. They just will not carry a pay figure until enough employers print one.

Why These Numbers Are Different

Search what a roustabout makes and you will get a national average built by blending North Dakota with Texas, Oklahoma and Pennsylvania. That number describes nowhere. It is useless for deciding whether to take a job in Watford City.

Four rules on every number here:

• Every pay figure is Bakken only. No national blend, no other basin averaged in. A wage that mixes Williston with Midland describes nowhere.
• Employer-printed only. If the posting said DOE, competitive, or negotiable instead of a number, it does not count. Job sites also generate their own estimated salary ranges. Those are modeled, not real, and none are used here.
• The count is shown. Every range says how many postings it rests on. A number built on 13 postings and a number built on 2 are not the same thing and you deserve to see which you are looking at.
• A number has a shelf life. A figure counts for 6 months from the last day we saw it posted, then it comes off this page.

For context, the Bureau of Labor Statistics puts the all occupations mean wage for the West North Dakota nonmetropolitan area at $29.27/hr (May 2023, OEWS). Government data runs about two years behind. These postings are from this year.

How This Lines Up With Federal Data

Federal wage data exists. We checked these numbers against it rather than hoping nobody would.

The Bureau of Labor Statistics runs the Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics survey, collected in North Dakota by Job Service ND. In its May 2023 figures it put the mean wage for roustabouts in North Dakota at $27.25 an hour, against a national mean of $22.95. North Dakota pays roughly 19 percent over the national number for the same job title. That is the Bakken premium showing up in federal data.

Our roustabout numbers run $18 to $28 green, $23 to $30 with time in, and up to $38 running a crew. The federal mean lands inside that middle band. Two methods that share nothing, ours built from what employers printed in postings and theirs built from surveying employers directly, arriving in the same place. That is the check that matters, and we would rather publish it than have somebody else run it.

One thing the federal number hides, and it is the most important line on this page. BLS builds its annual figure by taking the hourly wage times 2,080 hours, which is 40 a week with two weeks off. On that math it reports North Dakota roustabouts averaging $56,670 a year.

A roustabout crew is not on a hitch. It is usually Monday through Friday, with a Saturday when there is work to finish and the odd Sunday when there is not a choice. But those are 10 and 12 hour days, not 8. Fifty to sixty hours in a week is ordinary, which puts a full year nearer 2,600 hours than 2,080. The federal annual figure is straight time on a 40 hour week, and almost nobody in this basin works one.

The gap gets wider the further you get from construction and maintenance. Wireline and coil tubing run hitch schedules, 20 and 10 and the like, and those hands are further past 2,080 than anyone. Read the federal hourly number. It is sound. Ignore their annual one.

What These Numbers Are Not

Three limits, stated plainly, because a number without its limits is a sales pitch.

• These are advertised rates, not take-home. A posting says what the seat starts at. What hits your account is that plus overtime, and in this basin overtime is most of it. A $25 seat running 70 hours a week is not a $25 job.
• Companies that print a wage are not a random sample. An outfit that publishes a number is usually either confident it is competitive or hiring green and being upfront about it. The ones paying under market tend to write DOE with no number, and a DOE with no number never makes this page. That probably tilts these ranges a little high.
• Some ranges rest on very few postings. The count sits on every one of them. Two postings is a data point, not a market. Read the count before you quote the range.

None of that makes these numbers wrong. It makes them what they say they are: what Bakken employers actually printed, inside a stated window, with the count shown.

Hiring in this basin moves with drilling activity, so it is worth checking how many rigs are running in North Dakota right now before you read any of these ranges as a promise. Never worked the patch? Start with how to get an oilfield job with no experience. Carrying a record? Oilfield jobs with a felony takes that question on its own.

Common Questions