Key lakes does pay out a 10% bonus, but only paid out for sailing days connected to layup, must be at least 45+ days, and is only based on base wages + OT. If I had to guess, it would be anywhere from $2000 to $5000 extra at the end of the season for most people unless they sailed for 3+ months straight connected to layup, in which case, it could be more. I didn’t include it because a relief won’t get it unless they do layup.
Yeah, the pay isn’t great without OT. In my experience, only the 1st ae or 1st mate pretty much get all the OT as they want. They typically work 12 hours, so now a 1st ae or 1st mate would make $1000/day. For 3rd & 2nd mates/engineers, you’re lucky if you end up on a boat where you can average 2 a day. There are guys out here who are perfectly happy just doing their 8 for the day and that’s it.
Here is pay for another company in the lakes, Vanenkenfort tug and barge, their pay is the following:
I don’t know know the specific limited licenses so I can only provide the unlimited equivalent.
12 hour watches for engineers or 6 & 6 for mates.
(3rd unlimited)
Junior engineer/mate = $635 a day
(2nd unlimited or higher)
Senior engineer/mate = $700 a day
Chief engineer = $750 a day
Not sure what captain makes, but obviously either same as chief or more.
That certainly puts a lot in perspective. Especially when i remember that i was making 550 a day as a chief on an atb in 2017.
In 2000 I was making 170 a day running a crewboat. I’d think a 100 ton capt running the same old pos camcraft would be in the high 300s low 400s per day these days.
The new MARAD daily payscale is as follow for ROS ships.
Master $584.14 OT $107.86
Cheng $536.75 OT $101.26
C/M;1A/E $455.59 OT $84.35
RO;ET $426.30 OT $78.41
2/M;2A/E $396.97 OT $72.48
3/M;3A/E $351.78 OT $64.41
2.5 days vacation per month now.
Overnight and weekend duty $17.20 per hr.
Rates are the same for AMO, MMP and MEBA.
Sea dog, do the ROS days count for union benefits such as chief mate upgrades? If so how many days does a mate have to do to take all required CM free of charge?
I have never sailed MARAD but I have a copy of all the MEBA contracts and MARAD isn’t even close to most of them. Even with their 4.5 bump in 2024. They are definitely not top tier pay.
