Occupation / job
Umpires, Referees, and Other Sports Officials
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 $40,710 against $50,020, this pays $775 a month less than the typical American job. Below the midpoint but within reach of it: the spread and the floor below decide whether that description flatters Umpires, Referees, and Other Sports Officials or not.
15,780 people work as Umpires, Referees, and Other Sports Officials. That is enough for a functioning national market and not enough for a functioning local one — in most metros this is a few employers rather than a field you can move around inside.
Performing and sport suit people who can separate the quality of the work from its reception, because the two come apart constantly and the money tracks the second one.
No verified preparation time is on file for Umpires, Referees, and Other Sports Officials. The wage survey behind every figure on this page asks employers what they pay, not what they required, so the honest answer here is that we do not know.
Who should not do this
$24,900 separates the bottom quarter of Umpires, Referees, and Other Sports Officials at $32,260 from the top quarter at $57,160. At a 1.8x ratio the midpoint is a weak guide to your own first year — find out which end you would be entering at.
The bottom quarter is under $32,260, $17,760 short of the $50,020 typical American job. The question worth answering before entering Umpires, Referees, and Other Sports Officials is how long people spend in that quarter, because the median says nothing about it.
Avoid it if you need income stability in your twenties, or cannot personally fund the years before the work is paid properly.
No failure rate is shown, and the absence is deliberate: the 15,780 figure counts people already working as Umpires, Referees, and Other Sports Officials, not everyone who trained and never got hired. Without a licensing register to divide by, a rate here would be an invented denominator.
What the spread tells you
A ratio of 1.8x — $32,260 to $57,160 — is wide enough that specialising inside Umpires, Referees, and Other Sports Officials pays measurably. $40,710 is the middle of a range you can move within.
In cash terms the middle half of Umpires, Referees, and Other Sports Officials runs $32,260 to $57,160 — $24,900 a year between the 25th and 75th percentiles, against a midpoint of $40,710.
The 75th percentile is $57,160. Reaching it from the $40,710 midpoint is $16,450 a year; reaching it from the $32,260 that the bottom quarter of Umpires, Referees, and Other Sports Officials earn is $24,900.
From $40,710 the drop to $32,260 is $8,450 and the climb to $57,160 is $16,450. When the upper half of the range is that much longer, the average is pulled well above the median — which is exactly why this site publishes the median.
Per hour at a standard full-time year that is $19.57 at the midpoint for Umpires, Referees, and Other Sports Officials, $15.50 at the 25th percentile and $27.48 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 Umpires, Referees, and Other Sports Officials for themselves is not in it, and there is no reason to assume $40,710 describes them.
The hourly number on this page is $40,710 divided by a 2,080-hour year and nothing more. We hold no unpaid-hours or cost data for Umpires, Referees, and Other Sports Officials, so it is arithmetic rather than an effective rate.
How this is calculated · Self-employment failure rates · What credentials cost and pay back · Look up something else