Canadian Mining Income I: mine dragline operators average $32 an hour

The Canadian Mine Salary, Wages & Benefits 2008 Survey Results has just hit my in-box.  This is the eleventh survey from CostMine, formerly Western Mine Engineering and now part of InfoMine.

With the obligatory disclosures out of the way, let us proceed to examine just one category, that of the Shovel/Dragline Operator.  I choose this category because of the almost mystical fascination of the shovel and dragline on a mine.  Every time you see a picture of an open pit, there is this huge beast that is the center of the true mining operation; for example, see the picture besides this text by Gord McKenna, a photographically-accomplished civil engineer with BGC in Vancouver. 

The average wage for the folk who drive these impressive beasts across all of Canada is $32 (I round to the nearest dollar.)  But there are differences:  the range is from a low of $27 to a high of $47 an hour. 

It is better to be a dragline operator in western Canada; they get just on the average of $32, while the folk across in eastern Canada get but $27.  Keep in mind these are all averages and you know what statistics can do to honest data.  To get the actual rates for individual mines, you will have to get your hands on a copy of the Survey.  

Dragline operators at metal mines average $29, at fossil fuel mines $32, and at diamond mines $36.  That seems fair considering how cold it gets up where the diamond mines are. 

The surprise to me is that the average for union mines is less than for non-union mines: $30 versus $32.  Does this represent lack of negotiation savvy, different mine settings, regional differences, or the impact of the many other benefits that increase the average take-home pay of the average operator? 

In the  2008 Survey are 135 pages chock-full of information about wages, salaries, and even executive compensation—well over a million a year in most cases.  This posting is but the first of a number I propose; I will add more as I work my way through the masses of data and try to get a mental picture of the tapestry of income across the mining industry in Canada. 

I recognize that the Survey is costly and not likely to be readily available to the individual.  But maybe through your union, your professional association, you human resources department?  I suggest that every employee should have the right to march straight into their human resource officer and be entititled to access a copy of this or other comparable industry data on mining income.  Good luck.