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Pay · 27-2023

Umpires, Referees, and Other Sports Officials earn $40,710 a year at the midpoint

Where you land matters more here than in most jobs — the top tenth earn more than 3.1 times the bottom tenth. The midpoint is $40,710.

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$40,710median a year · United States
—an hour $53,010average 15,780people
Nine in ten people in this work earn between the two ends. The shaded part is the middle half — where most people are.
$32,26025th $40,710median $57,16075th
$26,54010th percentile $82,96090th percentile
$32,260a year at the 25th percentile, nearer a first job
$67,600best-paying state · New Jersey
$21,900lowest-paying state · Oklahoma
+66%top state against the national median
  • 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.
  • The annual figure is arithmetic. For hourly occupations the annual figure is the hourly rate times 2080 hours. It is a calculation, not observed earnings: part time is the norm in retail and food service.
  • 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.”

Paid by the yearThe survey publishes no hourly figure for this occupation — it is typically salaried, often on a school or contract year.
State matters a lotThe same job pays $67,600 in New Jersey and $21,900 in Oklahoma — a gap of $45,700 a year.

Umpire and referee earnings, from starting pay to the best-paid 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.

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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 →

Neighbouring work, and what it pays

Occupations in the same group of the federal classification — the usual next steps, or the ones beside this one.

Umpires, Referees, and Other Sports Officials$40,710
Producers and Directors$90,360+$49,650 Choreographers$55,310+$14,600 Coaches and Scouts$47,320+$6,610

Examples

Resumes made for this kind of work.

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Umpire and referee pay rate, from hourly to yearly

Starts at this job’s median. Change the rate or the hours; a full-time year is 40 hours for 52 weeks.

$40,706a year

A resume for umpires, referees, and other sports officials

Name the job in the builder and the duties, skills and credentials it is screened on are written in for you.

Microsoft PowerPointMicrosoft WordMicrosoft ExcelMicrosoft OutlookMicrosoft Office softwareWeb browser softwareDatabase softwareVideo editing software
  • Officiated at sporting events, games, or competitions, to maintain standards of play and to ensure that game rules are observed.
  • Inspected game sites for compliance with regulations or safety requirements.
  • Resolved claims of rule infractions or complaints by participants and assessed any necessary penalties, according to regulations.

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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.

Number 685 of 788 by median pay

Better paid than 13% of the occupations in the survey.

  1. 683 Machine Feeders and Offbearers $41,220
  2. 684 Office Machine Operators, Except Computer $40,960
  3. 685 Umpires, Referees, and Other Sports Officials $40,710
  4. 686 Photographic Process Workers and Processing Machine Operators $40,610
  5. 687 Helpers--Painters, Paperhangers, Plasterers, and Stucco Masons $40,470

Umpire and referee wages, state by state

The 31 states where the most people do this work, of 34 with a published figure: their medians range by 3.09 times. Figures are the 2025 survey.

State Median a year Where most start 10th to 90th Employed
New Jersey $67,600 $33,890 $33,890 — $81,090 420
North Dakota $63,920 $26,900 $26,900 — $91,040 180
South Carolina $61,290 $27,180 $27,180 — $61,290 50
Wisconsin $57,000 $30,820 $30,820 — $91,200 300
Ohio $55,040 $23,560 $23,560 — $62,150 580
Louisiana $50,080 $31,500 $31,500 — $141,650 310
Illinois $49,070 $31,200 $31,200 — $86,860 690
Massachusetts $48,400 $32,600 $32,600 — $126,090 250
Arizona $46,440 $31,730 $31,730 — $69,460 210
Indiana $46,140 $24,690 $24,690 — $50,810 170
Vermont $46,080 $35,650 $35,650 — $61,580 80
California $44,530 $35,110 $35,110 — $80,750 1,950
Colorado $44,230 $32,790 $32,790 — $68,420 1,120
Pennsylvania $44,200 $20,800 $20,800 — $107,360 320
Iowa $43,040 $27,860 $27,860 — $104,000 190
Texas $42,920 $23,670 $23,670 — $55,990 650
Washington $41,350 $34,650 $34,650 — $62,430 400
Virginia $40,840 $33,020 $33,020 — $88,460 260
Connecticut $39,530 $34,010 $34,010 — $116,650 200
Oregon $38,730 $30,280 $30,280 — $54,920 170
Florida $37,070 $27,970 $27,970 — $61,380 280
Montana $36,370 $30,190 $30,190 — $57,600 60
South Dakota $35,260 $29,840 $29,840 — $63,060 80
Michigan $34,560 $25,960 $25,960 — $60,660 340
Missouri $33,140 $28,600 $28,600 — $50,320 1,240
Idaho $32,250 $25,490 $25,490 — $50,090 170
Utah $31,430 $23,890 $23,890 — $49,290 1,100
Georgia $28,360 $19,780 $19,780 — $70,550 280
Mississippi $27,060 $27,060 $27,060 — $36,250 60
North Carolina $26,540 $17,680 $17,680 — $67,010 400
Oklahoma $21,900 $21,740 $21,740 — $43,310 220

No estimate is published for 5 states: the survey withholds a figure when too few employers report it. Nothing has been filled in for them.

Questions people often ask

What is an umpire and referee’s yearly income?

An umpire and referee makes a median of $40,710 a year (2025 survey). The middle half earn between $32,260 and $57,160.

What is the starting pay for an umpire and referee?

Starting pay is usually near the 25th percentile, $32,260 a year, and sometimes as low as the 10th, $26,540.

Which state pays umpires, referees, and other sports officials the most?

New Jersey, with a median of $67,600 a year.

How many people work as umpires, referees, and other sports officials?

About 15,780 in the United States — number 685 of 788 occupations by median pay.

Work that pays roughly the same

Median pay within $250 of what umpires, referees, and other sports officials earn — $40,710 a year — but not always the same spread.

See all 788 occupations