OverviewSalaryAboutEducationWhere are the jobsEmploymentGenderRace/Origin
Overview
Provide information by accessing alphabetical, geographical, or other directories. Assist customers with special billing requests, such as charges to a third party and credits or refunds for incorrectly dialed numbers or bad connections. May handle emergency calls and assist children or people with physical disabilities to make telephone calls.
Titles for this career often contain these words
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Salary
Median salary: $37,710 annually
Half of those employed in this career earn between $29,430 and $48,700.
Context: Median Salary
How do salaries for this career compare to other jobs' salaries?
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Salary growth for telephone operators
Is this job likely to reward you for sticking with it through pay raises and promotions? The higher a job’s “experience quotient,” the more you are likely to get as you stay there.
Experience quotient percentile
Take a minute to look at how much you might expect your salary to increase with each five years' experience, as well as how the numbers working at each age change. Does this seem to be a job for the young or the old, or could it be a career offering steady salary growth for many years?
Salary distribution
Number employed
About Telephone Operators
How do benefits for this career compare to other jobs? The availability of health care, especially employer provided health care, and pension plans can add significantly to the value of compensation you receive in a career. These charts compare how this career compares to other careers with regard to health care and pension plans.
Employee has health insurance
Employer is providing health insurance
Employer-provided pension plan is available
Worker concerns
Some jobs are more stressful than others, and some are just plain dangerous. The following list gives the percentages of telephone operators who report hazardous or difficult situations typically occurring at least once a week.
- Unpleasant or Angry People (100%)
- Time Pressure (48%)
- High Conflict Frequency (44%)
- Responsible for Others' Health (34%)
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Injury and Illness
About 198 telephone operators become injured or ill for every 10,000 workers, making this job more dangerous than 92% of other careers. The most common specific illnesses or injuries are detailed following.
Soreness and pain
All cuts, lacerations, punctures
Education pathways to this career
Education attained by telephone operators
According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS), telephone operators typically hold a high school diploma or equivalent.
Sometimes the typical education identified by the BLS differs a bit from the reality of the how much education current workers actually have. The donut shows the education level held by people currently working as telephone operators as reported in responses to the American Community Survey.
Education level of Telephone Operators
Only 15% of telephone operators have a bachelor's degree or higher.
Education attained by telephone operators
None
High School
Some College
Associate's Degree
Bachelor's Degree
Master's Degree
Professional Degree
Doctorate
Where are the jobs
State-by-state employment numbers
Some careers tend to be centered in specific parts of the country. For example, most jobs in fashion are in New York or California. Let's see if your dream job is easy to find in your dream location! We have a few choices for viewing the data that can help you get a full employment picture.
Select a state to see local area details
Number of Telephone Operators per 1,000 workers (ACS)
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Job density versus job count
Which states hire the most telephone operators? We wonder if that's a fair question since states come in all sizes, so instead let's start with the question of which states have the highest density of people working as telephone operators. You can choose to view the number of jobs per state if you prefer.
Salaries by state
Let's get a feel for where telephone operators earn the highest salaries. There are several choices for which data we consider and how we view that data, and each can lead to different conclusions, so please read on...
Median salary versus state ratio
We use two methods to compare salaries across states:
- In-state comparisons: the ratio of median (middle) salaries for telephone operators compared to the median salary for all people working in each state, or
- Median salary: the unaltered median salaries for telephone operators.
The darkest shading corresponds to states in which telephone operators earn the highest salary when compared to other jobs in the state. We think this figure might be a better indicator than the actual salary for your buying power as a state resident.
Select a state to see local area details
Location-adjusted median salary for Telephone Operators (ACS)
Employment
22% of Telephone operators are working part time.
We’ve found that some jobs have a huge number of part-time workers, and typically that is because they are unable to find full-time work or the job itself can’t provide full-time hours. With 22% part-time workers, this occupation has a higher percentage of part-time workers than 71% of careers.
Employer types
This donut shares the break-down of workers by employer type, giving us a picture of what employers most typically hire for this career.
Employers of undefined (ACS)
Private for-profit
Private not-for-profit
Local government
State government
Federal government
Self-employed incorporated
Self-employed not incorporated
Working without pay
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Distribution: Salaries of telephone operators by type of employer
Here are the salary distributions based on employer type.
Gender
Telephone operators and gender
With 72% women, this occupation has a higher percentage of women than 83% of careers.
Gender of Telephone operators
Men (28%)
Women (72%)
Distribution: salaries by gender
Does gender greatly influence your salary in this career? The closer the bars are, the less discrepancy there is.
We only include salary data when the survey error is less than 20%, so you may see only partial information for some categories.
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Context: Women in the workforce
How does this career compare to other careers with regard to the percentage of women in the career.
Context: Salary inequity
The median salary for all full-time male workers in the
US exceeds the full-time median salary for women
by 19%.
The situation is a little better for telephone operators, with the
median salary for men 11%
higher than the median salary for women.
Race/Origin
Race and origin of Telephone operators
This donut shows the distribution of race and origin among those employed as Telephone operators.
Race/origin of telephone operators
White (59% )
Black (28% )
Other (5% )
Asian (3% )
Multiracial (2% )
Hispanic (1% )
American Indian (1% )
Pacific Islander (0% )
Distribution: salaries by race/origin
Some careers might have a pay disparity based on race or origin, the closer the below bars are the less of a discrepancy is present.
We only include salary data when the survey error is less than 20%, so you may see only partial information for some categories.
