America's Best-Paying Blue-Collar Jobs

Forbes reports:

The oil industry may be a magnet for controversy in the U.S. right now, with crude continuing to gush from BP's ruined deep water well in the Gulf of Mexico, but according to Labor Department statistics, oil workers are among the best-paid blue-collar employees there are.

Two oil-related positions make our ranking of the top 10 best-paying blue-collar jobs. Oil and gas rotary drill operators pull down an average of $59,560 a year, with the top 10% earning more than $89,100. Petroleum pump system and refinery operators make just a little less, averaging $56,990. The top 10% of them earn $78,020.