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Worksheet Grade 8 Social Studies & Civics

Wrenfield's Retiring Operators: A Grade 8 Water Workforce Worksheet

A grade 8 economics worksheet using real pay and workforce data to plan for a wave of water-operator retirements at a fictional utility, then weigh its options.

Objectives

  1. Students will use national wage and workforce data to calculate pay and staffing figures for a water utility.
  2. Students will evaluate how a utility could respond to a wave of operator retirements, weighing costs and benefits.

Vocabulary

Apprenticeship
A way to learn a skilled job by working alongside experienced workers while getting paid. Water utilities use apprenticeships to train new operators and technicians.

Also: median pay, percentile, workforce, retirement-eligible

Teacher overview

Across the country, water and wastewater operators are retiring faster than new ones are trained, which makes staffing a real economic problem for utilities. This worksheet gives students national pay and workforce data and asks them to plan for that problem at the fictional Wrenfield Regional Water Authority. Students work with real median pay, percentile pay, and openings figures, then decide how a utility should respond. The scenario connects grade-level percent and multiplication to a real career field in the water sector.

Wrenfield's Retiring Operators: A Grade 8 Water Workforce Worksheet — Grade 8 Social Studies & Civics
Name: ____________________________ Date: ______________

Student Worksheet

Use these national figures, which are real, for all items:

  • The median pay for water and wastewater treatment plant and system operators was $60,020 per year in May 2025.
  • The 10th percentile pay was about $39,110 per year, so the lowest-paid 10 percent earned less than that; the 90th percentile pay was about $91,060 per year, so the highest-paid 10 percent earned more.
  • About 10,000 operator openings are projected each year, on average, from 2025 to 2035. Total operator jobs are projected to shrink by 6 percent, so all of these openings come from replacing operators who retire or move to other jobs.
  • The country employed about 131,000 operators in 2025.
  • EPA estimates that roughly one-third of the water workforce is eligible to retire in the next 10 years. In 2016, only about 10 percent of water workers were 24 or younger, compared with 12.5 percent of all U.S. workers (Brookings).

The fictional Wrenfield Regional Water Authority employs 60 licensed operators.

  1. A Wrenfield operator earns the national median pay of $60,020 per year. About how much is that per month? Round to the nearest dollar.
  2. Find the difference between the 90th percentile pay ($91,060) and the 10th percentile pay ($39,110).
  3. About 10,000 operator openings are projected each year. About how many openings is that over 5 years?
  4. The 10,000 yearly openings are what percent of the 131,000 operators employed in 2025? Round to the nearest tenth of a percent.
  5. Suppose one-third of Wrenfield's 60 operators become retirement-eligible in the next decade, matching the national share. How many operators is that?
  6. If Wrenfield must replace those operators evenly over 10 years, about how many must it hire per year on average?
  7. Roughly one-third of the water workforce is eligible to retire in the next 10 years, and in 2016 only about 10 percent of water workers were 24 or younger, compared with 12.5 percent of all U.S. workers. Explain in one or two sentences why this age pattern could make hiring harder over the next decade.
  8. Operators need a high school diploma, on-the-job training, and a state license, not a four-year degree. Give one reason an apprenticeship for local graduates could help Wrenfield fill its openings.
  9. A new operator starts near the 10th percentile at $39,110 and reaches the median of $60,020 after several years. Find the raise in yearly pay between those two points.
  10. Some board members want Wrenfield to raise pay to attract operators; others want to train local people through apprenticeships. Name one benefit and one cost of the raise-pay option for Wrenfield's ratepayers.

From Water for Schools (waterforschools.org). This material is in the public domain (CC0) and may be copied, edited, and shared freely.

Answer Key
  1. Answer: $5,002 per month. $60,020 divided by 12 months equals about $5,001.67, which rounds to $5,002.
  2. Answer: $51,950. $91,060 minus $39,110 equals $51,950 between the 90th percentile pay and the 10th percentile pay.
  3. Answer: 50,000 openings. 10,000 openings per year times 5 years equals 50,000 openings.
  4. Answer: 7.6 percent. 10,000 divided by 131,000 equals about 0.0763, which rounds to 7.6 percent.
  5. Answer: 20 operators. One-third of 60 operators is 60 divided by 3, which equals 20 operators.
  6. Answer: 2 operators per year. 20 operators divided evenly over 10 years equals 2 operators per year.
  7. Answer: Too few young workers to replace many older ones. With about one-third of the workforce able to retire within 10 years, and a smaller share of young workers in water (about 10 percent) than in the workforce as a whole (12.5 percent), utilities may lose experienced operators faster than younger workers can be trained to replace them. Accept any answer noting the shortage of younger workers to fill the gap.
  8. Answer: Apprenticeships train people locally without a four-year degree. Because the job needs a license and on-the-job training rather than a college degree, an apprenticeship lets Wrenfield grow its own operators from local graduates who are likely to stay. Accept any reasonable reason tied to the education path.
  9. Answer: $20,910. $60,020 minus $39,110 equals $20,910 in added yearly pay from start to median.
  10. Answer: One benefit and one cost named. Benefit: higher pay can attract experienced operators quickly. Cost: those raises are paid for through water rates, so ratepayers' bills go up. Accept any answer that pairs a real benefit with a real cost to ratepayers.

Differentiation

Support

Provide the setup for items 1, 4, and 5 already written (for example, "60,020 divided by 12 equals ___"), so these students finish only the final step. Allow a calculator throughout, and give a filled-in model for one percent problem before item 4.

Extension

Ask students to estimate how many operators Wrenfield would need to hire per year if half, rather than one-third, of its 60 operators retired in the decade, and to explain in a sentence how that change would affect the utility's training budget.

ELL supports

Pre-teach median pay, percentile, workforce, and apprenticeship with a simple ranked-list picture showing where the 10th, 50th, and 90th percentiles fall. Provide sentence frames for items 7, 8, and 10 that begin "One reason is ___" and "One benefit is ___, but one cost is ___."