No surprise here but at least someone outside the industry noticed …
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The US should announce and enforce a minimum wage for ships:
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Owned by Americans, regardless of flag
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Owned by companies listed on US stock exchanges
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Calling at US ports
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Financed or insured in the US
Keep it reasonable:
Masters $20,000 a month
1st officers $15.000
2nd /3rd $10,000
AB $6000
Similar for engineers.
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@tugsailor You will have a hard time getting anyone especially Masters and 1st to work for those low wages. Do these wages not account for wages you’ll be paid on vacation? What master is going to work for 120k (180 days of work)?? Might as well work as a third mate for some other company.
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I’m talking about foreign flag ships where Masters are now getting around $6000 a month and ABs get around $1000
Why would I care about foreign wages? I don’t care about foreigners’ jobs this will in no way help US sailors. Just tax the hell out of FOC ships and use that money to fund MSP billets.
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Maybe because you are competing against those wages that are paid by American business owners who could care less about your ability to feed your family or purchase the goods carried on those ships as long as they are banking (in some offshore tax haven) the obscene profits garnered by their greed.
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@Steamer what we need is a strong US fleet with a bunch of US companies. More US ships = better wages and treatment. I mean these carriers are are causing inflation. They have a monopoly that US regulations don’t allow but since they are outside the reach of the US we can’t do anything which leads to results in artificially high prices leading to inflation.
US sailors aren’t competing with these foreign wages. US sailors have for a long time not been able to compete that is why we have the MSP fleet.
We have a taxpayer subsidized MSP fleet because high cost American sailors cannot compete with Third World villagers working for peanuts.
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Uh, yeah, no further comment necessary. Have a nice day.
It looks like the academies need to start teaching a required Shipping Economics course.
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@Steamer @tugsailor Good luck trying to raise the wages of third world seafarers. 120k for a master is not leveling the playing field. I hope my wages don’t fall to level the playing field. Or I’ll leave to go shore side, much more opportunity and higher wages than there used to be. I get calls to go shoreside. I might if this is the mentality of our current US mariners. This new generation - always trying to save the world and right every wrong - the US is doomed
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The MSP fleet is funded because of the difference between FOC and US ship’s operating costs. If FOC ships faced higher costs due to significantly better wages than that gap would be less.
In that (hypothetical) case the same budget for the MSP fleet could fund more US flag ships because each ship requires less money (to fund the smaller gap).
Yes in theory, but this is impossible to enforce and just not practical. Would be easier to ban FOC all together. Is Libera really going to enforce higher wages. NO of course not- its a business. Best thing to do is ban them all together. All you have to do is go to New York and shut it down. After all its run by American Business men.
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I’m sure the many foreign companies that own and operate MSP ships would be happy to put more of their old an d obsolete ships under US flag to get the subsidies and preferential cargo:
https://www.maritime.dot.gov/sites/marad.dot.gov/files/2021-02/MSP%20Fleet%201-1-2021.pdf
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The bulk of the Liberian fleet is owned by US and European ship owners. There is as much chance of getting any law passed by your friendly congressman or senator as you finding a mountain of ice cream in Death Valley.
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You are the only one who suggested raising the wages of the village people. My comment was about the greed of shipowners who are taking advantage of circumstance to rob shippers and consumers while pocketing inflated shipping rates.
If you feel like taxing someone, tax the windfall profits of American owners of those ships.
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Seafarers from many countries don’t pay any tax and have universal healthcare, so many foreign masters earning $120k take home $120k inclusive of health care costs. I think an American Master would have to earn about $190k to take home $120k after tax.
It is hard to compete with seafarers from countries that don’t pay tax, because they will work for a lot less and still take home the same or more than an American.
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Absolutely and I hope they do. I would rather have a job on an old obsolete US flagged vessel then no job at all. And I am sure the US would rather have old ships than no ships at all.
True US should not be taxing its mariners while other countries don’t. Making US mariners except from taxes would be beneficial especially as wages have fallen in terms of purchasing power.
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