Pay · 53-5021
Captains, Mates, and Pilots of Water Vessels earn $92,460 a year at the midpoint
Pay in this work stretches a long way: the lowest tenth earn about $47,420, the highest tenth about $170,640, and the middle sits at $92,460.
National figures for captains, mates, and pilots of water vessels, 53-5021, from the 2025 Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics survey.
- Read the spread, not the middle. The median is the midpoint across everyone in the occupation, most of them years into the work. A beginner starts nearer the 10th to 25th percentile, which is why the spread is published alongside it.
- What the figure counts. The figure counts base pay plus tips, commissions and production bonuses. It leaves out the self-employed, unpaid family workers, private household workers, and the value of benefits or profit sharing.
- Where you live moves it more than your resume does. National figures. A state or metro area can sit far from the national number, and that gap is usually larger than any difference a resume makes.
- Not in these numbers. Growth and annual openings are not in this dataset. They come from the separate Employment Projections tables, where an opening is a modelled ten year average and not a posted vacancy.
Source: U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics, 2025. Retrieved through the BLS Public Data API on 2026-08-13. bls.gov/oes “BLS.gov cannot vouch for the data or analyses derived from these data after the data have been retrieved from BLS.gov.”
Ship captain earnings, from starting pay to the highest 10%
Pick the job, where you work and how long you have done it. The range comes from the published wage percentiles for that job.
The survey has no complete figures for that job — pick the closest title from the list.
An estimate from survey percentiles, not an offer. Employer, industry, shift and credentials move pay within and beyond this range. Full wage page for this job →
Ship captain wages, state by state
The 33 states where the most people do this work, of 38 with a published figure: their medians range by 2.59 times. Figures are the 2025 survey.
| State | Median a year | Where most start | 10th to 90th | Employed |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Maryland | $138,950 | $54,920 | $54,920 — $222,280 | 450 |
| Tennessee | $132,710 | $60,270 | $60,270 — $215,470 | 940 |
| Louisiana | $117,160 | $60,480 | $60,480 — $206,860 | 6,830 |
| Texas | $111,390 | $64,850 | $64,850 — $170,800 | 3,400 |
| California | $110,090 | $56,060 | $56,060 — $348,100 | 2,420 |
| New York | $104,800 | $54,850 | $54,850 — $165,360 | 1,930 |
| Mississippi | $104,220 | $47,030 | $47,030 — $186,020 | 570 |
| Washington | $103,730 | $57,350 | $57,350 — $153,330 | 1,560 |
| Iowa | $97,700 | $46,220 | $46,220 — $121,760 | 80 |
| Oregon | $97,050 | $52,880 | $52,880 — $138,000 | 350 |
| Indiana | $92,000 | $59,220 | $59,220 — $212,820 | 1,010 |
| New Jersey | $90,310 | $50,420 | $50,420 — $156,790 | 510 |
| Alaska | $88,230 | $42,360 | $42,360 — $149,370 | 710 |
| Virginia | $87,610 | $54,560 | $54,560 — $132,160 | 2,270 |
| West Virginia | $85,290 | $39,250 | $39,250 — $120,320 | 110 |
| Missouri | $83,670 | $31,960 | $31,960 — $158,510 | 420 |
| Minnesota | $80,920 | $37,770 | $37,770 — $134,680 | 110 |
| Massachusetts | $77,950 | $50,960 | $50,960 — $127,720 | 650 |
| Georgia | $77,090 | $38,640 | $38,640 — $121,570 | 220 |
| Rhode Island | $76,790 | $39,360 | $39,360 — $163,510 | 250 |
| Florida | $76,040 | $36,240 | $36,240 — $136,120 | 5,040 |
| New Hampshire | $75,870 | $47,530 | $47,530 — $165,110 | 70 |
| Connecticut | $75,810 | $48,380 | $48,380 — $151,800 | 380 |
| Wisconsin | $74,390 | $36,360 | $36,360 — $132,080 | 170 |
| Hawaii | $72,960 | $47,550 | $47,550 — $115,100 | 700 |
| Maine | $72,770 | $47,640 | $47,640 — $104,240 | 360 |
| Illinois | $69,600 | $48,210 | $48,210 — $125,050 | 900 |
| North Carolina | $69,170 | $43,040 | $43,040 — $105,880 | 490 |
| Alabama | $68,920 | $30,650 | $30,650 — $123,860 | 350 |
| Pennsylvania | $61,420 | $36,710 | $36,710 — $127,060 | 580 |
| South Carolina | $57,660 | $27,600 | $27,600 — $123,840 | 520 |
| Ohio | $56,070 | $37,530 | $37,530 — $99,090 | 420 |
| Michigan | $53,590 | $33,280 | $33,280 — $98,420 | 640 |
No estimate is published for 1 states: the survey withholds a figure when too few employers report it. Nothing has been filled in for them.
Examples
Resumes written for this kind of work.
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Writing a resume for captains, mates, and pilots of water vessels
Name the job in the builder and the duties, skills and credentials it is screened on are written in for you.
- Directed courses and speeds of ships, based on specialized knowledge of local winds, weather, water depths, tides, currents, and hazards.
- Prevented ships under navigational control from engaging in unsafe operations.
- Served as a vessel's docking master upon arrival at a port or at a berth.
This page includes information from the O*NET 31.0 Database by the U.S. Department of Labor, Employment and Training Administration (USDOL/ETA). Used under the CC BY 4.0 license. O*NET® is a trademark of USDOL/ETA. The owner of tiersi.com has modified all or some of this information. USDOL/ETA has not approved, endorsed, or tested these modifications.
Place 156 of 788 by median pay
Better paid than 80% of the occupations in the survey.
- 154 Web Developers $92,650
- 155 Signal and Track Switch Repairers $92,460
- 156 Captains, Mates, and Pilots of Water Vessels $92,460
- 157 Transportation Inspectors $92,100
- 158 Budget Analysts $91,640
Ship captain pay rate, hourly to annual
Starts at this job’s median. Change the rate or the hours; a full-time year is 40 hours for 52 weeks.
Questions people often ask
What is a ship captain’s yearly income?
A ship captain makes a median of $92,460 a year (2025 survey). The middle half earn between $63,880 and $127,180.
What is a ship captain’s hourly pay rate?
The median pay rate is $44.45 an hour; the average is $103,720 a year.
What is the starting pay for a ship captain?
Starting pay is usually near the 25th percentile, $63,880 a year, and sometimes as low as the 10th, $47,420.
Which state pays captains, mates, and pilots of water vessels the most?
Maryland, with a median of $138,950 a year.
How many people work as captains, mates, and pilots of water vessels?
About 36,850 in the United States — number 156 of 788 occupations by median pay.
Work that pays nearly the same
Median pay within $790 of what captains, mates, and pilots of water vessels earn — $92,460 a year — but not always the same spread.
- Same median Signal and Track Switch Repairers $92,460median a year 10th percentile: $62,610 90th percentile: $119,550
- $360 less Transportation Inspectors $92,100median a year 10th percentile: $40,330 90th percentile: $138,670
- $790 more Chemistry Teachers, Postsecondary $93,250median a year 10th percentile: $57,870 90th percentile: $172,110