Captains, Mates, and Pilots of Water Vessels
SOC 53-5021 · 2024-2034
Command or supervise operations of ships and water vessels, such as tugboats and ferryboats. Required to hold license issued by U.S. Coast Guard.
How the U.S. Department of Labor describes this work. Published in English only.
What California expects of this job
- Typical pay in California
- $112,500per year
- Projected openings
- 2,940
- Projected change
- 0%
- Usually needs
- Postsecondary non-degree award
Skills this work uses most
O*NET, the U.S. Department of Labor's occupation database, rates how important each of these is to this work, and they are listed in that order, most important first. The ratings themselves are not shown, because the data carries the number without the scale it was measured on. The names are as published, in English.
- Operation and Control
- Monitoring
- Speaking
- Judgment and Decision Making
- Operations Monitoring
- Active Listening
Pay by region
| Region | Typical pay in California | Projected openings |
|---|---|---|
| San Francisco-San Mateo-Redwood City MD (San Francisco and San Mateo Counties) | $114,087 | 210 |
| Oakland-Fremont-Berkeley MD (Alameda and Contra Costa Counties) | $113,507 | 270 |
| Oxnard-Thousand Oaks-Ventura MSA (Ventura County) | $89,801 | 90 |
| Los Angeles-Long Beach-Glendale MD (Los Angeles County) | $81,437 | 930 |
| San Diego-Chula Vista-Carlsbad MSA (San Diego County) | $76,670 | 370 |
| Anaheim-Santa Ana-Irvine MD (Orange County) | $72,426 | 200 |
What the pay actually ranges across
- The lowest-paid tenth earn under
- $57,287
- A quarter earn under
- $75,242
- Half earn under
- $112,500
- Three quarters earn under
- $135,206
- The highest-paid tenth earn over
- $355,720
A median is one point. These are the federal Bureau of Labor Statistics' 2026 figures for California, and they say how far apart the people doing this job actually are. Read them as the spread across everyone already in the work — not as a starting wage and not as a promise about where anyone lands.
Similar work
O*NET, the U.S. Department of Labor's occupation database, names these as occupations involving work similar to this one — its own reading of the job, not a grouping by code. They keep O*NET's order, and only those California publishes a projection for are shown.
| Occupation | Typical pay in California | Projected openings | Projected change |
|---|---|---|---|
| Sailors and Marine Oilers | $56,388 | 2,090 | 0% |
| Airline Pilots, Copilots, and Flight Engineers | $361,647 | 13,570 | +11.3% |
| Transportation Inspectors | $84,817 | 2,030 | +5% |
| Commercial Pilots | $169,215 | 7,200 | +19.6% |
| Locomotive Engineers | $78,757 | 1,130 | -6.3% |