Every crew lounge has had this conversation: two ABs, same rank, same ocean, different money. A seafarer salary is never one number, and the difference is never magic. It is the CBA, the flag, the trade, and the wage annex nobody read closely enough at the crewing office.
Search "seafarer salary" and you get tables. Neat rows, one figure per rank, no source, no year. The only number anyone can enforce is the one in the agreement your contract names, and that looks different on a house-agreement bulk carrier than on an ITF-covered gas carrier.
The four parts of a seafarer salary
A seafarer salary splits into parts, and the split matters more than the total.
Basic wage. The contractual core. MLC 2006 Standard A2.2 requires payments due to seafarers to be made at intervals no greater than monthly, in line with any applicable collective agreement. Everything else is calculated from the basic, which is why an employer who inflates the headline package and keeps the basic low shrinks your overtime rate and your leave pay at once.
Overtime. Standard working time in the ITF reference is 48 hours per week, or 208 hours per month. Hours beyond that are overtime, and MLC Guideline B2.2.2 recommends each overtime hour be paid at no less than 1.25 times the basic hourly rate, with records of all overtime kept by the master. If nobody on board keeps that record, that is a finding, not a local custom.
Leave pay. MLC Standard A2.4 sets paid annual leave at a minimum of 2.5 days per completed calendar month, so 30 days over a year, 22.5 on a nine month contract. It is money you earned. An annex that never names leave pay has buried it in a lump sum or dropped it.
Allowances. Tanker and chemical premiums, seniority steps, war risk payments. These come from the agreement, not the convention. They appear or they do not.
Consolidated wage: what "all inclusive" hides
Plenty of contracts print one figure and call it a consolidated wage. USD 1,400 all inclusive. Consolidating is not wrong in itself, as long as the annex still shows the parts: basic, guaranteed overtime hours, leave pay, and the rate beyond the guarantee.
The dangerous version has no breakdown. No basic to calculate leave pay from, no hourly rate to price the extra hours after a week of tank cleaning in Rotterdam, and no way to prove you were short paid. We put that clause near the top of the contract red flags for a reason.
One question settles it at the crewing office: what is the basic, and how many overtime hours does it cover? An office with a real CBA answers in ten seconds.
Where the real wage tables live
There is exactly one published international floor: the ILO minimum basic wage for an able seafarer, USD 690 per month since 1 January 2026, rising to USD 704 from January 2027 and USD 715 from January 2028, agreed at the ILO Joint Maritime Commission subcommittee in April 2025. The formula behind that figure sits in the seafarer minimum wage 2026 post. That article is the floor. This one is the mechanics.
The floor covers one rank. Every other rank scales from agreements. The CBA named in your SEA carries the scale for your rank, trade and employer, and an ITF-approved agreement starts above the ILO floor. The ITF publishes its wage material openly and lets crew check whether a named vessel is covered, through the Look Up section of its site and the ITF Seafarers app.
So no honest article prints one salary per rank for the whole industry. A recruiter who quotes a universal figure for a second engineer is guessing or selling. Three questions replace the table: which agreement, which annex, which year.
What actually moves the number
Rank moves it most. A master or a chief engineer earns a multiple of what an AB on the same deck earns, and the jump comes with the certificate and the liability, not with years served. The ladder is its own subject: merchant ship ranks explained.
Trade comes next. Tankers, chemical carriers and gas carriers generally pay a premium over dry cargo, for an unromantic reason: they demand certificates fewer people hold, and cargo work that runs through the night with a terminal watch on deck.
Then coverage. A ship under an ITF-approved agreement pays from a published scale; a house agreement pays from a scale the company wrote. Both can be lawful. Only one is checkable from ashore. After that it is your own file: endorsements, tanker familiarisation, clean sea service. Rank sets the band, the file decides where in it you land.
Cruise pay is built differently again. Hotel department pay is often a lower basic plus a share of service charge or gratuity pools, so the total swings with occupancy, while deck and engine sit under their own agreements. Crews describe the trade as social life and shorter port gaps against a package that reads leaner than a tanker contract. The MLC rights are identical on both ships: cruise ship crew contract and MLC rights.
The tax-free myth
"Seafarers do not pay tax" is the most repeated wrong sentence in the industry. There is no maritime profession exemption. Tax follows your residence and your national law, and the ship does not change that.
Most national systems test residence with a day count, often 183 days in a tax year, which is where the myth started. A seafarer relief, where one exists, is a separate national rule. The United Kingdom is the clearest published example: the Seafarers' Earnings Deduction requires residence in the UK or tax residence in the EEA, plus an eligible period of at least 365 days, broken if 183 consecutive days are spent in the UK. The number that matters there is 365. Other countries run different tests, some run none.
The practical part is dull. Keep your dates: discharge book entries, sign-on and sign-off, flights, port calls. Whatever your rule turns out to be, that paperwork is the proof, and keeping it as you go beats rebuilding it two years later.
Free crew appSeafarer Contract CheckCheck your contract clause by clause against MLC 2006 and flag state regulations. The check is free. On iPhone, Android or in the browser.
Cash on board, allotment, and the monthly wage account
Your wage leaves the ship by two doors: the allotment, a monthly transfer to a person you nominate at home, and cash advance drawn on board or in port.
MLC Standard A2.2 covers both. Shipowners must provide a means to transmit all or part of earnings to families or dependants, remitted in due time and directly to the nominated person. Charges must be reasonable, and the exchange rate must be the prevailing market or official published rate, not one unfavourable to the seafarer. The same standard requires a monthly account of payments due and amounts paid, including the exchange rate used.
That account is the document most crew never read. Read it. Cash drawn in port is an advance against your own wage, so it reduces what reaches home. Keep the slips with the statements and the two should reconcile monthly. Two things should stop you cold: an allotment nominated to an agency account instead of a named person, and one set so high that nothing is left for port.
What eats the wage before it reaches home
The biggest leak happens before the ship. MLC Standard A1.4 prohibits fees or other charges for recruitment and placement being borne directly or indirectly by the seafarer, and no local office overrides that with a laminated price list. Crew still pay, and the debt rides the whole contract. The mechanics sit under manning agency fees.
After that: deductions that appear in no SEA or CBA, conversion at a rate nobody can explain, charges for items the shipowner must provide, and extensions agreed by handshake without a fresh wage annex, so the extra months run on terms nobody signed. That last one has its own article: how many months a seafarer contract runs.
Read your own wage annex in ten minutes
Take the annex, take a pen, and find these:
- The basic for your exact rank, in a named currency, with the agreement and year on the page.
- The overtime rate, and how many guaranteed hours the salary already covers.
- The rate for hours beyond the guarantee, and who records those hours.
- Leave pay as its own line, at 2.5 days per month or better.
- Allowances for your trade, spelled out rather than implied.
- The allotment clause: percentage, frequency, named beneficiary.
- The name and date of the CBA the contract refers to, so it can be checked.
Silence on any one of them is a finding. Raise it before you sign, not after. The free MLC Contract Check reads the whole seafarer employment agreement against MLC 2006 in about a minute, in your browser, and marks the wage clauses that are missing or vague. No account, nothing leaves your phone.
None of this is glamorous. It happens at a plastic table with a bad pen and a flight in four hours. Crew who have been caught once do it every time, the same instinct that packs a sign on set the night before and keeps the seafarer hoodie that survived a full contract.
Source note
Wage floor and increases: ILO, seafarer minimum wage 2026 to 2028. Working hours, overtime rate, leave accrual, vessel lookup: ITF Seafarers, wages. Payment intervals, monthly account, allotments, exchange rates: Standard A2.2 and Guideline B2.2.2; leave: Standard A2.4; recruitment fees: Standard A1.4, in the Maritime Labour Convention, 2006, as amended. UK tax example: HMRC helpsheet HS205, Seafarers' Earnings Deduction.
This article is editorial context for crew, not legal or tax advice. For a wage dispute, contact the union or ITF inspector covering your vessel.
FAQ
What is the average seafarer salary?
There is no reliable global average worth printing. The only published international floor is the ILO minimum basic wage for an able seafarer, USD 690 per month since January 2026. Pay per rank comes from the CBA your contract names.
Which seafarers earn the most?
Senior officers on specialised tonnage, typically masters and chief engineers on tankers and gas carriers, where certificates are scarce and trade premiums apply. The figures sit in the applicable collective agreement.
Is overtime included in my basic wage?
It must not be hidden there. MLC Guideline B2.2.2 recommends overtime at no less than 1.25 times the basic hourly rate, with the master keeping a record of hours worked. A consolidated figure that swallows overtime without a breakdown is a red flag clause.
Do seafarers pay tax on their salary?
That depends on your country of residence, not on working at sea. Some countries operate a seafarer relief with its own conditions, such as the UK Seafarers' Earnings Deduction, which requires UK or EEA tax residence and an eligible period of at least 365 days. No international exemption exists.
What is an allotment on a seafarer contract?
An allotment is a monthly transfer of part of your wage to a person you nominate at home. MLC Standard A2.2 requires shipowners to provide the means to make it, paid directly to that person, with reasonable charges and a fair exchange rate.
Is the ILO minimum wage the same as the ITF wage scale?
No. The ILO figure is the international floor for one rank, the able seafarer. An ITF-approved agreement sets scales for all ranks on a covered vessel and starts above that floor. Your enforceable rate is the one in the agreement your contract names.
7SHORT1LONG® is a Seafarer Identity Brand. Know your split before you argue about your total.
YES, WE ARE CREW.
Gear for the watchSeafarer T-Shirts · Crew Best Sellers· Seafarer CapsBuild your Sign On Set · Build your Sailor Set
