Yacht Crew Starting Salaries: The Comprehensive Breakdown for Newbies

You’re working hard to land your first job in yachting. It’s going well. Your network of contacts is growing. Your CV has been well received by crewing agencies and management companies. You’re getting positive feedback. 

What determines how high your starting salary is in yachting?
Image by Arno Senoner on Unsplash

But you know there might still be a way to go. After all, you’re up against a lot of people who have been drawn to the industry. It’s glamorous, luxurious, fast-paced and exotic. What’s not to like? On top of which, the pay is excellent.

Hold on a second.

Yes, the pay is good. But those big numbers you’ve heard about? Those aren’t for newbies. 

Sure, a junior deckhand can earn $4,500 per month on board a big yacht. But big yachts demand (and can afford) the best crew. Even the lowest positions on board will go to crew with experience. As a newbie, that’s unlikely to be you.

It’s far more likely you’ll start out on a smaller yacht. And smaller yachts run on smaller budgets. Believe it or not, even the ultra-wealthy have spending limits. Someone worth $100 million can barely afford a superyacht. And a billionaire? Mid-range superyacht.

You have to be a hundred billionaire plus to own and operate the biggest yachts. And there just aren’t that many of them, so competition for crew places on the best yachts with the best salaries is fierce and experience counts.

Trust us on this. We’ve been inside the superyacht industry for a long time. So let us guide you through starting salaries in yachting. We’ll also give you some tips on how you can boost your first salary, even if it’s your first job on board a superyacht.

What affects your starting salary in yachting? (It’s not just about the job title)

Yacht size is one of the things that will have an impact on your starting salary
Image by Arno Senoner on Unsplash

Here are the key things that will impact your starting salary:

• Vessel size
  As we’ve already mentioned, yacht size is directly related to salary. The same position on the biggest yachts can pay far more than the salary paid on the smallest superyachts.
  
• Vessel type
  Superyachts are either used privately by the owner or chartered out on a weekly basis to guests. Charter yachts are a business. They exist to make a profit, so running costs are kept as low as possible. That includes crew salaries. However you should receive your share of any tips paid by the charterers, which can be substantial.
  
  Privately operated yachts, on the other hand, exist for the owner’s pleasure rather than business profit. So salaries can be higher.
  
• Flag
  The country where a boat is registered has a huge impact on running costs. This goes for any sector of the maritime industry. And the fact of the matter is some flags are sticklers for rules and regulations, while others are more lenient. It’s not unkind to suggest that yachts registered with the cheaper flags and so-called flags of convenience have tighter purse strings than those registered with premium flags.
  
• Management company
  Running a yacht is a specialist business, so many owners, if not most of them, hire management companies to do it for them. That often includes crewing the boat and looking after salaries. And as with any industry, some companies are willing to pay more to attract the best crew, while others will look to keep the payroll cost down.
  
• Role and certification level
  Your role on board will impact your salary, even as a newbie. Junior deckhands and stewards/stewardesses rely more on their personality, energy and hard work than, say, a newbie chef or an engineer does. These staff members have formal training and qualifications, and that’s reflected in higher entry-level pay compared with other positions.
  
• Experience (even if outside yachting)
  OK, so you’re starting out as a steward/stewardess on board a superyacht. That doesn’t mean you don’t have relevant experience outside of yachting that could bump up your pay. For example, if you’ve worked for several years at one of the world’s premier luxury hotels, even in a lowly role, you’re ahead of someone who has never been around the ultra-wealthy before.
  
• Language skills
  If you want to get into yachting, you have to speak English fluently. That’s a given. It’s also very likely that the yacht owner or the guests on board speak English or have some English. However, English often isn’t their first language. That makes any other languages you speak, and therefore you, more useful. And more useful is more valuable.
  
• Special qualifications
  Finally, what other qualifications can you bring to the table? Are you a certified dive master? That’s valuable in an industry based predominantly in two of the best diving seas in the world: the Mediterranean and the Caribbean. Perhaps you are a qualified masseuse/masseur, personal trainer or hairdresser? Bingo. There’s another sought-after skill.

Entry-level roles and pay: what you might earn as a new joiner

Here is a guide to what you can expect to earn at the start of your yachting career. Bear in mind, these are average ranges. You may be offered more or less pay, depending on the boat and the employer.

Also, once you’ve proved yourself as a reliable and capable crew member, pay in yachting can increase quickly.

Role	Monthly Salary Range, depending on boat size (EUR/USD Approx.)	Notes
Junior Deckhand	€2,500 – €3,000	May include tips on charter yachts
Junior Steward/ess	€2,500 – €3,000	Often entry point for hospitality-focused crew
Chef (new to Yachting)	€3,000 – €4,500	Can increase rapidly with experience
Engineer (Entry Level)	€3,500 – €5,000	Technical skills in demand
Dual Role (e.g. Deck/Stew)	€2,500 – €3,200	More flexibility, more responsibility

The role of tips and perks: the part that’s often left out

It’s not all about your basic salary, though. You should consider the value of your total package, including non-financial benefits.

For starters, if you work on board a charter yacht, you can expect to top up your pay with tips from guests during the season. Tips usually go into a communal pot and are distributed by the captain. They can add 10–50% or even more to your monthly income at the peak of the season.

If you work on a private yacht, there is the chance you’ll get a bonus at some stage. In some instances, private yachts may offer longer leave or a better chance of being on year-round rotation, rather than simply working the season and then being let go.

In addition, some employers offer free flights, top-tier medical cover, help with cost of training, etc.

Again, there are no hard and fast rules. It very much depends on the boat. But it is worth weighing up all of these non-salary benefits to get a clearer picture of the overall value of your remuneration package.

Bear in mind as well, that if an employer is offering a decent package of perks on top of your salary, it’s likely that they are more engaged with their crew welfare than those employers who scrimp on benefits. Some employers are just better than others to work for.

What to expect in your first year: learning, earning and levelling up

Yachting is a fast-paced business. Days are long and you need to be alert and quick on the uptake. On top of which, you don’t get to go home to decompress at the end of the day. You’re on the boat 24/7 and don’t for a minute think the crew quarters match the opulence of the guest decks.

All of that can be a shock to the system for a newbie. Some simply don’t make it. You can stack the odds in your favour by getting into the right headspace from day 1.

Focus on learning the onboard protocols and getting to grips with being around and interacting with the ultra-wealthy. Learn all you can as quickly as you can to fit into the dynamics of the boat. 

Each boat is different. Sometimes the differences are subtle; other times, they are like night and day.

The good news is that once you show yourself to be a reliable crew member who fits in, your financial potential will increase. What superyacht managers want above all is a smoothly run boat that provides guests with a first-rate experience. They are willing to pay more for crew who have a reputation for making that happen.

But that comes with a warning. The superyacht industry is a fickle one. Do not assume that a bump in salary, and the high levels of pay in the business in general, mean that you now have financial security. It’s the very opposite. You now have more to lose.

It’s a hard truth that regardless of how good you are at your job, you can be let go at any moment. Never forget that you are merely a servant of the super-rich. And for the super-rich, everything, apart from the asset portfolio underpinning their wealth, is expendable and replaceable.

So once you’ve secured the big salary, you need to start acting as if it won’t last forever — because it won’t. Your time in yachting starts running out from the moment you step on board your first yacht.

It’s time for you to start thinking about money like the super-rich do.

Smart moves for first-year crew: start strong, financially and professionally

Smart superyacht crew think like yacht owners
Image by Viktor Forgacs on Unsplash

Remember what we just said about how the super-rich view their asset portfolio? It’s the engine that drives their wealth and they protect it with their lives. In fact, they are constantly working to add to it. It’s a self-fuelling engine. It makes profits and those profits are reinvested to make more wealth. The money engine never stops making more money.

That’s why the ultra-wealthy don’t use their assets to pay their bills. Instead, they take out big loans at favourable rates, secured against their assets. Those loans are what they live on. And the really clever bit? A loan isn’t income, so they don’t pay income tax on it.

And don’t for a second worry about how they manage to pay back their loans. Their portfolio is churning out more than enough money to cover the repayments.

Contrast the financial behaviour of superyacht owners with that of superyacht crew. Most crew get their salary and spend it. Gone. They don’t use it to build up any kind of asset portfolio that acts as a money engine for them.

Superyacht owners are all about wealth accumulation. Most superyacht crew are all about spending their wealth — ie. wealth reduction.

Right now, as a yachting newbie, you’re a potential millionaire. You can earn at least a million over a 10-15 year career, if you keep moving up the ranks. Are you going to spend it all, or are you going to behave like the yacht owner and start building an investment portfolio or a savings plan that’s going to make you more money?

Here’s what clever crew do:

• Open a multi-currency or offshore bank account that suits the mariner’s lifestyle.
• Track your spending. Many crew members overspend during their downtime, leaving them with nothing.
• Start a savings plan. Savings ‘plan’, not savings ‘account’. Even investing a small regular amount builds a habit and has a surprisingly powerful financial impact over time.
• Speak to a crew-specialist financial advisor about financial planning for superyacht crew.

Don’t just chase the pay cheque — build a career and a future

Here’s a tough piece of advice to follow. Think beyond the short-term. Think five, 10 or even 15 years ahead. Your salary is a starting point, not the endgame. You will leave yachting one day. And it will be sooner than you think.

You have a golden opportunity to turn the next few high-earning years into long-term financial security and perhaps even financial independence.

The ultra-wealthy choose what they do with their life and their precious time. At the moment, you do as you’re told in return for a pay cheque.

Having a portfolio of investments means you too will at least have some financial independence when you leave yachting. That in turn means you’ll have more control over your life and your choices about what to do after yachting.

By putting the financial structures and habits in place at the start of your career, you will get the maximum financial benefit out of the next few years of your life. You won’t get this opportunity again.

Looking to make the most of your first yacht crew contract? Talk to Yachting Financial Solutions for advice tailored to the realities of life on board and getting the most out of your career in yachting.