Skipi Vacancy Index

Independent analysis of maritime salaries

A monthly index of seafarer compensation by rank and vessel type — compiled from open vacancy postings aggregated by Skipi, so a captain or chief engineer knows what the market actually pays before saying yes to a contract.

Issue · May 2026

↗

Top of the market

Master · Crude Tanker — $14,000 / month

Median across 18 fresh VLCC and Suezmax postings, p25–p75 range $13,500–$14,000.

↗

Coverage

1,418 vacancies aggregated

Collected 23 May 2026 from public crewing channels worldwide.

Highlights · May 2026

Senior Officers

Master · Chief Officer · Chief Engineer · 2nd Engineer. High responsibility, vessel type drives the spread.

$14,000 Master · Crude Tanker · median

Mid-Rank Officers

2nd / 3rd Officer · 3rd / 4th Engineer · ETO. Early-career tier where rank and vessel type compound.

$7,100 ETO · Crude Tanker · median

Ratings & Cadets

AB · OS · Bosun · Cook · Fitter · Oiler · Cadet. The hands-on crew — general cargo dominates volume, tanker pays the top.

$3,180 Fitter · Crude Tanker · median

Senior Officers

Master · Chief Officer · Chief Engineer · 2nd Engineer. The high-responsibility ranks where vessel type drives compensation the most.

Highlights

Master · Crude Tanker tops at $14,000 median. VLCC and Suezmax dominate this bucket.
Chief Engineer · Product Tanker $13,925 and Crude Tanker $13,305 — tanker premium for engineering is large and consistent.
Master · Container $9,859 is notably lower than Tanker — the public market skews toward feeder and mid-size container, not ULCS.
2nd Engineer · Container Ship has the largest sample in the entire index (N=67) at a tight $7,906 median.

Mid-Rank Officers

2nd / 3rd Officer · 3rd / 4th Engineer · ETO. The early-career tier where progression and vessel type compound.

Highlights

ETO · Crude Tanker leads the mid-rank tier at $7,100 — substantially above ETO on Container, Bulker or General Cargo.
3rd Engineer · Chemical Tanker sits at a remarkably tight $5,200 across 24 postings — the chemical tanker market prices this rank as a single number.
2nd Officer · Chemical Tanker also tight at $5,200 (N=16). Chemical tanker operators run a uniform wage scale.
4th Engineer · Bulker ($3,200) pays meaningfully better than 4th Engineer · Container ($2,574) — junior-rank bulker premium is real.

Ratings & Cadets

AB · OS · Bosun · Cook · Fitter · Oiler · Wiper · Cadet. The crew that does the hands-on work — wages dominated by general-cargo postings, with tanker premium visible at the top.

Highlights

Fitter · Crude Tanker tops the ratings tier at $3,180.
AB · General Cargo / Coaster has the largest sample of any ratings bucket (N=29) at $1,686 — the dominant entry-rate in the public market.
Tanker premium for AB is small: Crude Tanker $1,900 vs General Cargo $1,686 — under $300 / month.
Engine Cadet · General Cargo at $500 is the bottom of the published market.

How this index is built

Skipi aggregates open vacancy postings from public crewing channels and job boards worldwide. Each posting is parsed for rank, vessel type, declared salary and contract length, then grouped by a canonical taxonomy (22 ranks × 14 vessel types).

This issue is based on 1,418 vacancies collected on 23 May 2026. A bucket is published when it contains at least 5 postings (N ≥ 5 for ratings and mid-rank, N ≥ 10 for senior). Outliers above $25,000 / month are excluded as annual-figure misreads.

The numbers shown are median with a p25–p75 range — so the headline reflects the middle of the market, not the cheapest or most expensive contract. Direct-relationship hiring done by larger ship managers does not appear in public postings and is therefore not represented in this index.

Next issue: June 2026. Full methodology: /methodology.

Want vacancies filtered to your rank?

Skipi is a local-first maritime app for seafarers — document vault, certificate expiry tracking, vacancy match by rank and certificate set, and salary indices delivered as they publish.

Get Skipi at skipi.app →