Occupation / job
Sailors and Marine Oilers
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
With a $51,520 median against a $50,020 national one, Sailors and Marine Oilers is an average-paying occupation by construction — $125 a month either way. What separates it from the alternatives is not on this line.
With 31,670 employed as Sailors and Marine Oilers, 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 Sailors and Marine Oilers — BLS reports pay, not preparation, and we will not estimate it.
Who should not do this
$41,430 to $67,590 — 1.6x, or $2,180 a month between the quarters. An unremarkable spread, which means the useful planning number for Sailors and Marine Oilers is the bottom of it rather than the middle.
Even the bottom quarter, under $41,430, lands within $8,590 of the $50,020 typical American wage. The downside of Sailors and Marine Oilers is not really the money.
Avoid it if weeks or months away from home at a time would not work for the people you live with.
You will not find a "what share make it" figure here. 31,670 is a headcount of the employed, which is a numerator without a denominator — everyone who qualified and never got hired is missing from it, and we will not estimate them to complete a percentage.
What the spread tells you
1.6x between $41,430 and $67,590 is the ordinary shape of an occupation where experience and region both matter and neither dominates. $51,520 is a fair expectation by mid-career, not on day one.
The middle half of this field earns between $41,430 and $67,590. That is $26,160 of range, with $51,520 sitting inside it as the point half the field is above and half below.
Between $41,430 and $67,590 — the two ends of the middle half — sits $51,520. Moving from the midpoint to the upper quarter is worth $16,070; the whole climb from the lower quarter is $26,160.
It is $10,090 from $51,520 down to $41,430 but $16,070 up to $67,590. When a range leans this far upward, the interesting question is what puts someone in the top half, because the money is disproportionately there.
Converted to an hourly rate over a full-time year: $19.91 at the bottom quarter, $24.76 at the midpoint, $32.49 at the top quarter. The typical American job works out at $24.04 on the same basis.
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 Sailors and Marine Oilers for themselves is not in it, and there is no reason to assume $51,520 describes them.
With no unpaid-hours or cost data for Sailors and Marine Oilers, the hourly figure is $51,520 over a 2,080-hour year — a unit conversion, not an adjustment.
How this is calculated · Self-employment failure rates · What credentials cost and pay back · Look up something else