I'LL GET BLASTED--STA PAY

[number41]

I know there probably are about a zillion posts on here about this, but I looked (a little) and I just don't have time to weed through 347,278 posts that show up when you search for any compensation question.  Anyway, I'm not looking for specific pay scales, I'm just curious to see which companies pay their STA's straight salary (i.e. no time and a half.)  Also, anybody else have a carve-out?  For example, our SRO's get paid time and a half after a 45 hour carve-out, but the STA's do not.  Just curious to see if we are in the dark ages or if this is standard at a lot of companies.  And before the rants begin, I'm actually fine with what I get paid.  I really am just interested to see how far behind the curve we are compared to other companies.

[JustinHEMI05]

At my company STA is a collateral duty that all SROs (degreed or at least appropriate minimum classes) perform and no extra pay is involved. At my last utility they were a whole separate division who made a lot less than an on shift SRO.

Justin

[Nuclear Renaissance]

My site (one you may be familiar with, McLovin), follows the ACAD guidelines for who they tap as STAs:

"Candidates should have bachelor's degrees in engineering or physical science or sufficient courses to provide a background for understanding the design and operation of nuclear power plants. These courses should include mathematics (calculus through ordinary differential equations), chemistry, physics, thermodynamics, heat transfer, fluid mechanics, electrical theory, basic electronics, and strength of materials."

Sometimes it's the ODE coursework that holds people up.

To answer some of your other posts, the site requirement for the ABET comes into play when an SRO candidate doesn't quite meet other Direct-SRO ACAD requirements (which we also follow), such as being just short of 2 years as an EOOW or EWS – it allows them to go the ops engineer route with a year less required experience.

Our STA-qualified SROs do get paid straight time OT starting at 45 hrs, capped at 60 per pay period, versus 1.5x OT for SRO-only guys starting at 40 hrs with no cap. Even though the SRO-only make about $15k less in base salary, the required coverage OT takes them fairly well ahead in yearly earnings. That gap is closing as the plant staffs up Ops, especially with the awesome talent in the present license class.

Good for you that you are thinking about other things outside of your department. I – and I believe most of my site's management team – welcome cross-discipline collaboration and suggestion, especially fresh insight. Even if a person's idea ultimately bears no fruit (or even if it's downright stupid) it's good to know they have the right direction for the site in mind.