Benefits and growth runway. Also I’d note that a new drillship 3/M without DPO is basically doing the workloads of an AB. They won’t step foot on the bridge besides DPO training time. So for inspecting lifeboats and landing choppers $100k for 6mo work isn’t that bad. And consider that jumps to prob $140k as soon as you get a jr DPO spot.
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What’s the going rate these days for Master/OIM in Drilling? (Base, bouns, etc)
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Try telling that to a teacher, or a cop, or a firefighter.
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I’ll give you teachers, but have you seen how much cops or firefighters make?
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No one’s saying they aren’t seriously underpaid too.
If the wet ink licensed 3rd mates can’t manage their duties straight out the gate, then demote them to AB or roustabout and get them to move along. TMA has a former USAF Colonel as Supt. and he can’t seem to get it through his noggin that there’s no OCS for mates and engineers and maritime training is a f*** ton more important than marching.
But I digress… I made about $80k/starting out in 2000 as a fresh 3rd mate with AMO. With inflation, $100k isn’t great at all.
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I can only speak to a couple years ago and basing off C/E /Sr Maint Sup (since I never saw OIM on the super secret pay scales that would find their way around). Base is over $200k, bonus has varied over the years as changes from retention to performance structure but I’ve seen from $20-30k as high as $60k. 401k company contribution 5-10%. Working overseas with pay premiums and company tax benefits I’ve just touched $300k as C/E.
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Although difficult to prove without a lot of data, this forum regularly shows anecdotally that real inflation-adjusted wages in the US maritime industry have been going down in little increments over the long term. @ItsJody it is foolish to claim someone’s wages are too high. Almost arrogant. And high wages in one sector can put pressure on other parts of our industry to catch up.
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Too high of wages are not the best for our industry, there has to be a happy medium. Everyone saw how fast the bottom fell out during the down turn. Boat companies will cut wages quickly, lay up boats, and send people home. If someone is making 150k a year and has an issue with inflation then they are not managing their money correctly. Do I like inflation? No. Does it make or break me? No. I think we are very fairly compensated these days. We aren’t exactly neurosurgeons here. Eventually we will put ourselves out of business and the jones act will be gone before you know it.
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Probably dependent on location, in FL not great till they make rank. For example 100k in the FD is captain or district chief pay and that is YEARS of experience and that’s probably on the higher end of the pay scale for those positions.
There kinda is, and they’re it.
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Son of a retired cop. It was tough in a big city. Mom didn’t speak good English. Didn’t get to do any extracurricular activities and I joined the military to eventually pay for school. Wife is a teacher and without my ship jobs we would be much, much….much less comfortable. But sure. I’ll “try” telling them that. Their wages are outrageously too low. That doesn’t mean ours should be too.
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I made 116k with overtime my last year in the FDNY as firefighter and that was in 2007.
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Im glad to see the WAK fleet come up to industry standard, that was in fact pretty wack doing that for like 460 a day.
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Yes, and barely making more than a well paid AB. They could be on a supply boat holding a bridge watch and not busting their ass doing 12 hour days of seriously hard work while also making more money. Who would want to make less for working significantly harder?
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I tried explaining that to an engineer I used to work with that was debating between drillships and OSVs. All he could see was the up front money, not the difference in experience and engineering skill levels.
Why? What industry is it best for?
That’s a reason to have high wages.
There are plenty of Mariners who are underpaid. For extreme examples look at some of the small vessel and inland boat pay rates.
On a side note, seafarer pay should have shot up over the past few years. A significant part of our pay is simply for us to be away from home. Since the pandemic, working from home has become widespread. Employers should feel pressure to pay a premium for requiring workers not just to be away from home for long periods, but in today’s world, just to physically show up.
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Im sorry but this is BS. Wages have not kept up since the 70s/80s. The average day rate is the same money we could be making and going home at night, if we have the aptitude for a shoreside job. If the Bucce’s catches on fire at 0300 no one is asking the car wash manager to put it out. After a long shift being an accountant in a highrise down town, you are free to get taco bell after work. Mariners are not afforded this luxury while making $25/hr as 3rd mate. We all should be making oil patch money, that is a more fair market value for our time.
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Nice. Curious how many years of service did it take to reach that salary? Cost of living pretty high in NYC I’m assuming?
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Curious, how many time a year are you putting out a fire?
I don’t think I have ever met a tug captain that actually lives in NYC. They live all over the country.
I am on a boat that works when there is work for the boat, so I have to live in 3-4 hour radius. We are not on hitches.
To be captain of a tug you need to be master of towing vessels which in theory you could get with three years of sea time. In reality it takes longer.
Before you can get hired by anyone you need experience. Before you can get hired to push oil you will generally need a lot of experience or experience actually pushing oil in New York.
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