A note about working over. People who are working over are doing nothing but fooling themselves. Hopefully they are getting paid time and a half but I know many companies do not. That being said. It’s easier to have someone work over than hire a new employee. Being a former hiring manager the costs of recruiting, indoctrinating new employees is very costly. Not to mention the new set of benefits that have to be paid out. Working over helps no one but the employer.
If the employer has the “go to” cake eaters they will rely on them constantly until they burn out or finally developed the intestinal fortitude to say “no.”
Now let’s take into account what’s happening at home whilst you are working over. Beings that you are not present to take care of your family and the needs of your significant other, someone else will be. These folks are commonly referred to as “Jody’s.” This is nothing new. Absence can make the heart grow fonder yet absence can make the heart go wander.
Also, take into account all of the “extra” money you are making. Where is it really going? In today’s age many have the ability to handle our finances while aboard ship. Those that do not I wish you the best of luck. Also keep in mind that you may be raising your IRS tax bracket. More importantly,
If the relationship or marriage becomes dissolved you now have to present all of your finances in court. So your former spouse will get more of your hard earned money because you have “worked over” to make all of this money.
This is not a gender specific. It is a simple fact that those who made the most money pay the most after dissolution. This also does not take into account post secondary education costs that may be awarded for your children. Remember, half is where they start, then comes all the add ons.
So who are You really helping by working over? Not to mention lessening the demand for higher wages and benefits.
Just hoping you will think twice before saying “yes” to working over.
It’s your call Good luck.
I think about boat pay vs other ways a person may earn money, like mowing 2 yards before lunch & earning more than an AB working 12
hrs & being at the job site for 24 hrs a day after
taxes, some companies are paying McDonald wages for newbie deckhands, if a licensed plumber, HVAC tech, small mechanic owner operator works the number of hrs a boat captain does (12 hrs per day) the bill you receive will be quite a bit more than what a boat captain makes and look at what they are responsible for vs what the boat captain is responsible for in equipment cost, liability,
personnel safety etc
No AB is working 12 hours per day, haha. Those days are long gone. Lucky to get 2 hours now. Gotta send the Mate out there to keep them moving else nothing would ever get done.
With how low their pay is I don’t see how anyone can blame them.
Uh, what do they make where you work?
Where I am at $450-525/day seems to be pretty fair compensation, particularly when you consider that the education and skill set required to get to that pay level is next to nothing.
Paying someone more doesn’t instill work ethic. I’ve seen guys work harder who were actually good at their job who were making half or even less than half of that rate.
Everything you say make sense & I agree with you for older established mariners with families. But not so much for younger single guys or for those looking to get sea days. I used to work 8-10 months a year when it was just me & party during port calls to get off the boat on longer hitches but religiously even time or less since 2007. But if a paragraph on gcaptain forum or shooting the breeze at the galley table could persuade these masochists to get a life they would have stopped after their first complaints about working a long hitch or after their first divorce. The long hitch workers aren’t giving it up for any reason imo. Pay them $10k a day & they’d still only go ashore 2 months a year to enjoy their money. Sickos.
The SIU deep sea contracts are almost all shit. Like $200 per 12 hour day after overtime.
True, but paying someone less gets you what you pay for. You’ll both get shitty people in general because the good workers quit and the good workers that stay will give you shit work to match the shit pay.
WTF? That’s barely over minimum wage in some states. Some “union” negotiated that? Unbelievable…
Exactly. It’s my understanding that a lot of SIU apprentices quit the program after their first time on a ship once they realize how little the unlicensed crews actually make.
I have no idea how SIU thinks they’re looking out for their people by negotiating such horrible contracts. They’re just causing all the good workers to quit the union.
Rightfully so and SIU should come to an end as they are not a union for workers by any definition
That’s extremely low, like oilfield downturn deckhand wages…are they doing day work and going home, or staying on the boat and working in a rotation? If the former I can see that being a decent gig, but that pay is not very common at all.
I was making $80 more than that as a fresh AB working on tow boats 16 years ago non union.
Why would anyone stay there? Has to be some benefit.
There are many other options to explore and they could easily double their salary with a simple email and phone call.
I guess I wouldn’t expect my guys to work either if they were being taken advantage of like that, but most of the rest of the industry the deckhands are compensated quite well, so it’s not a good example at all.
Hell our AB’s working 2/1 here and raking in around $115-120k/yr gross.
I’d say they’re quite fairly compensated given they have zero responsibilities and not much skill to speak of.
If you make a career out of it you get a pension. I’m not sure if he included the vacation pay either, which would be a solid bump at the end of their trip.
That makes sense and I’m not surprised, I knew something was off with that day rate. Typical, Lol what a crock of horsesh1t. I was sure there was more to that story, or else nobody would stay there.
A crappy pension after 20 years of poverty wouldn’t quite do it either, I can guarantee there’s something else, be it vacation pay or overtime etc in addition which brings the total package to a reasonable level.
Those guys can probably go home every day too.
You’re right, I forgot the vacation pay. They get 15/30 at their base pay rate so since I don’t have a contract in front of me I’ll massively overestimate and say that adds $75 a day to the numbers I already gave.
It’s a fairly shitty pension, though you get health insurance for life as well.
$275 a day after vacation pay, still shit.
That’s a fairly good description.
Health benefits don’t cost you anything out of your paycheck and you can take classes at Piney Point for free.
Most of the people that are worth a shit don’t stay.
Unless someone invented a teleporter I’m unaware of I don’t know how they could go home every night from the middle of the ocean and/ or the other side of the world.
Conveniently…I figured something was missing…Probably some longevity pay too.
But that’s not the total package, as you said, and it’s likely you’re leaving some benefit unspoken again. You don’t have to pay healthcare premium? Thats a HUGE benefit…
Most of this industry, that would cost 600-$750/month for family just the employees part, so add like $35-45/day if only working half the month
Starting to look better and better…honestly.
Well of course not, most people that learn to flip burgers at McDonalds and get good at it don’t stay there either, unless they want to work their way up to burger flipping Captain. Which begs the question, you’re still there because…why?
If you’re worth a damn, then why not go earn more elsewhere? Really sounds miserable for anyone who knows their own worth.
If you’re working on an ocean-going vessel and traveling to the other side of the world for those wages, which I don’t think you are, you’re either under qualified, non-employable anywhere else or insane…or you live in a third world country and can still live like a king.
That’s not a thing with SIU contracts. Only thing I’ve heard of close to that is a “continuity bonus” from MSC that’s $800 of you stay for over a year or something. I only got it once.
No, that’s pretty much it.
If I recall correctly he’s not in the SIU, and if he is he’s making officer wages which are significantly higher than that. Could be wrong.
I’m not “still there” because I was never SIU deep sea.
I’m not and never said I was.
It is huge…and anytime this subject comes up, i will chime in to give prospective SIU members a heads up on this which is a lot more than i got.
It takes 90 days WORKED to qualify for the insurance. If you are sailing deep sea, no problem. You’ll have it by the time you sign off. If you are working SIU inland and are doing month on/month off and don’t work extra, it will take 6 months.
Tack on another few weeks for the union to get their shit together and enroll you.
The medical and dental is pretty good (no vision insurance, you can get reimbursed for a yearly exam up to a certain amount) HOWEVER all approvals for anything go thru the SIU first. You don’t talk directly with Cigna. You are at the mercy of communicating with the SIU health and benefits plan in maryland between 0830 and 1630 eastern time.
For a family of four with some minor occasional medical and dental issues, this formula turned out to be more of a headache than it was worth for my household. So yeah. No paid premiums…but there is a mental cost.
It’s retroactively effective back to the 90 day mark.
It also doesn’t cover mental health care for dependants so if your spouse or kids go to therapy or are on mental health meds that’s all out of pocket. I’ve heard of some colleges requiring members to buy supplemental insurance for their student children to be allowed to attend.
That said, it’s actually fairly good insurance. Low deductible, after the deductible is met the insurance pays 90% (you end up paying less than if there was a copay unless you almost never go to the doctor), and zero cost preventative medicine.
Don’t they take a cut from vacation checks for this though?