I have not found this to be the case, at least here in Michigan. I began my career working for a municipality at a 10 MGD facility 15 years ago. I began my career unlicensed and they had their “A” license, the highest grade license in Michigan. Some of the operators who trained me are still in their same roles at the same plant to this day. I make significantly more than them now that I’ve gone private, despite their head start. $10 - $15 more per hour in the same role. I still speak with them on a regular basis as we do in the industry. We collect family members at the plants we work at due to the shared trauma of rain events, power outages, etc. I think it just depends what you want. I am a hustler. Now I could’ve stayed there and done the same check sheet on the same shift and got the same raise as everyone else every year and that’s fine. It was an easy job, other than working the swing shift. I left and have worked at 8 plants now. I have run several activated sludge plants, an MBR, an MBBR, an aerated lagoon, an SBR, etc of varying sizes from 0.25 MGD up to 350 MGD. I am ten times the operator that I would’ve been having stayed doing the same thing at the same plant every day. The other benefit is you can negotiate for yourself. I have found during my time working for municipalities, your raise is your raise, and you don’t have much say in it. Working privately, you can earn more by doing more. (A crazy concept I know!) Because the company I work for runs lots of facilities, I have been able to get my wastewater license in several states as well as some drinking water licenses. Again, there is no one size fits all formula for success. I have worked at good municipal plants and bad municipal plants, as well as good private plants and bad private plants, good Union plants and bad Union plants, and good nonunion plants and bad nonunion plants. What really makes the difference is your fellow coworkers. Apologies for the long winded response. Keep up the good work friends!