TOOL · UPDATED AUGUST 2026
Yacht crew salary: what a season is actually worth
A shore job pays you, then takes rent and a food shop back out. A boat does not. Put your own numbers in and see what the difference is worth over a few seasons.
WHAT YOU PUT ASIDE
€108,500
over 5 years, at €2,170 a month and €21,700 a season.
That is the part people miss. A shore job pays you and then takes rent and a food shop back out. This one does not.
IF YOU LEFT IT TO COMPOUND
€129,466
of which €20,966 is growth rather than pay.
If prices rise 2.5% a year, that buys about €114,429 of today's money. A rate you choose is not a rate you get: any decade can end lower than it started.
what you paid in what it grew by
| Year | Paid in | Worth |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | €21,700 | €22,513 |
| 3 | €65,100 | €72,377 |
| 5 | €108,500 | €129,466 |
What this leaves out
Four things, all of which push the real number up rather than down. The calculator stays conservative on purpose.
- Tips. On a charter boat a crew member's share of the tip pool runs USD 500 to 2,000 a charter week, split evenly whatever your rank, and a heavy season can beat that. Private boats pay none.
- Raises. The bands here are entry level. Nobody stays entry level for five years.
- Rotation. A rotational job pays less per month and buys back half the year.
- Tax. See below. Most yacht salaries are quoted gross and a lot of crew pay nothing on them.
And one thing that pushes it down: the weeks ashore between jobs. A bunk in a crew house runs about EUR 260 a week in Antibes and USD 210 to 240 in Fort Lauderdale. Drop the months slider to cover it.
What about tax?
This page does not work it out for you, and no calculator honestly can. What a seafarer pays turns on the passport, the days spent out of the country and, in one case, on a point of law two firms read differently. Three regimes cover most crew reading this.
A British passport
Seafarers' Earnings Deduction. Duties performed on a ship, an eligible period of at least 365 days outside the UK, UK or EEA tax residence, no single UK visit over 183 consecutive days and UK days at most half the period. Claimed in box 11 of SA101. Keep the discharge book. Offshore oil and gas installations are not ships for this.
A South African passport
Two answers exist and they disagree. The general foreign employment exemption, s10(1)(o)(ii), covers services rendered outside South Africa for more than 183 full days in any 12 months including one unbroken run over 60 days, and exempts the first R1.25m. The separate seafarer exemption, s10(1)(o)(i)(aa), is disputed for private yachts: one firm reads "for reward" as excluding private use crew, another reads it as covering them and uncapped. That is unresolved. Take it to an accountant who has done it before.
A US passport
You are taxed on worldwide income and you file every year wherever you are. The Foreign Earned Income Exclusion, Form 2555, needs 330 full days in a foreign country per 12 months on the physical presence test, and days over international waters travelling to or from the US do not count. The maximum exclusion was USD 132,900 for 2026.
None of that is advice and none of it is your answer. Every one of the three has a residency test you can fail by accident. Ask an accountant who works with crew before you plan around it.
Where the numbers come from
- Junior deckhand€3,000 to €3,200 a month. YPI Crew 2026 salary guide, seen 18 August 2026.
- Junior steward or stewardess€2,500 to €3,800 a month. YPI Crew 2026 salary guide, seen 18 August 2026.
- Crew chefUS$3,500 to US$5,000 a month. Yachtly Crew chef salary guide, seen 18 August 2026.
- Junior engineerUS$3,000 to US$6,500 a month. Yachtly Crew engineer salary guide, seen 18 August 2026.
The return rate is yours, not ours. The presets are labels on a number you pick and this page does not claim any market has paid them, does not name a fund and is not financial advice. Salary bands move. If one of these reads wrong to you, it is dated above and you can check it.