(Photo by Benjamin Lowy/Getty Images)

If you needed another reason to love the fossil fuel industry, look at the pay that many of its rank-and-file workers earn at the oil and gas drilling companies and the refineries.

According to a Wall Street Journal analysis of annual pay disclosures by big U.S. companies, the median annual income for oil and gas and refinery workers was nearly $200,000 in 2018.

For instance, at Houston-based Phillips 66, the median workers earned $196,407, "the highest of any company in the sector," said the WSJ.

(Photo by Benjamin Lowy/Getty Images)

At Anadarko Petroleum Corp, the median was $183,445.

ExxonMobil, which employs about 72,600 people, had median pay of $171,375.

Not counting its Speedway convenience store workers, Marathon Petroleum's median worker pay was $167,607.

The median salary refers to the middle, meaning half the workers made X and below and half made X and above.

With ExxonMobil, therefore, half of its workers made below $171,375 and half made more than $171,375.

Phillips 66 and Anadarko "both boosted their 2018 median pay by about 15% in 2018 compared with 2017," said the WSJ. "Exxon raised its median pay about 6%."

"Oil-and-gas companies typically pay their workers better than many other sectors because they have fewer low-paid retail jobs and must compete in a tight labor market driven in part by the shale-oil boom," reported the WSJ.