Occupation / job
Captains, Mates, and Pilots of Water Vessels
Median annual pay. Half earn less than this.
Hourly at a standard 2,080-hour year. We do not yet have unpaid-time or cost data for this, so this is not an adjusted figure.
The middle half. A quarter earn below this range.
Source: BLS Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics, May 2025 · view
What this figure cannot tell you
It covers people EMPLOYED in this occupation. Anyone who trained for it and was never hired is not in the median above, and neither is anyone doing the work self-employed. No verified count of qualified people exists for this occupation, so this page shows none rather than an estimate. Why that matters · The occupations where we could source it
Who this suits
At $92,460 against a $50,020 national midpoint, Captains, Mates, and Pilots of Water Vessels pays 85% more than the typical American job — $42,440 a year of difference. Read the entry requirements before the number.
With 36,850 employed as Captains, Mates, and Pilots of Water Vessels, most metros have a working market: several employers, visible turnover, and the ability to change jobs without moving house.
Water transportation suits people who can be away from home for the length of a voyage or a hitch, and who want the compressed time off that comes with it.
We carry no verified training length for Captains, Mates, and Pilots of Water Vessels — BLS reports pay, not preparation, and we will not estimate it.
Who should not do this
A quarter earn under $63,880, a quarter over $127,180: $5,275 a month between them at a 2.0x ratio. Planning around the midpoint of a spread this wide is planning around a number very few people in Captains, Mates, and Pilots of Water Vessels actually earn.
The bottom quarter of Captains, Mates, and Pilots of Water Vessels earns $63,880 or more — $13,860 clear of the $50,020 national midpoint. Three quarters of the field is well paid and the last quarter is still paid better than most of the country.
Avoid it if weeks or months away from home at a time would not work for the people you live with.
There is no failure rate on this page because there is nothing honest to divide by. BLS counted 36,850 people employed as Captains, Mates, and Pilots of Water Vessels; it did not count the people who trained for it and are doing something else, and a rate built without that denominator would be a number we made up.
What the spread tells you
From $63,880 to $127,180 at 2.0x: something inside this occupation sorts people a long way apart. Identifying what it is — sector, employer, credential — is worth more than any general advice about Captains, Mates, and Pilots of Water Vessels.
In cash terms the middle half of Captains, Mates, and Pilots of Water Vessels runs $63,880 to $127,180 — $63,300 a year between the 25th and 75th percentiles, against a midpoint of $92,460.
Between $63,880 and $127,180 — the two ends of the middle half — sits $92,460. Moving from the midpoint to the upper quarter is worth $34,720; the whole climb from the lower quarter is $63,300.
From $92,460 it is $28,580 down to the bottom quarter and $34,720 up to the top. The upper half of the range is the longer one, which is the ordinary shape for work where experience compounds.
Per hour at a standard full-time year that is $44.45 at the midpoint for Captains, Mates, and Pilots of Water Vessels, $30.71 at the 25th percentile and $61.14 at the 75th, against $24.04 for the typical American job.
What these figures are, and what they are not
This is payroll data: it comes from employers, about people they employ. Anyone doing the work of Captains, Mates, and Pilots of Water Vessels for themselves is not in it, and there is no reason to assume $92,460 describes them.
Treat the per-hour figure as a conversion. It assumes a flat full-time year against $92,460 because we have no verified record of unpaid hours or out-of-pocket costs for this work, and we would rather convert honestly than adjust invented ones.
How this is calculated · Self-employment failure rates · What credentials cost and pay back · Look up something else