A percentile is a position in the BLS distribution. It is not a promised offer or career forecast.
10th
$47,420
25th
$63,880
Median
$92,460
75th
$127,180
90th
$170,640
National context
What changes around the median
Captains, Mates, and Pilots of Water Vessels ranked 5 of 50 detailed transportation and material moving occupations with a published annual median. The national annual mean was 12.2% above the median, showing why one center point does not describe the full distribution.
Area estimates below use the same SOC code and release. They do not adjust for cost of living, experience, benefits, hours, employer mix, or remote-work policy.
Published metro rows
Highest medians for Captains, Mates, and Pilots of Water Vessels
Ranked only among metros with a published annual median. No cost-of-living adjustment.
Six highest published annual medians
Louisville/Jefferson County, KY-IN: $130,380. Baton Rouge, LA: $129,260. San Francisco-Oakland-Fremont, CA: $124,610. New Orleans-Metairie, LA: $121,710. Slidell-Mandeville-Covington, LA: $120,810. Lake Charles, LA: $119,630.
Captains, Mates, and Pilots of Water Vessels wage guide
Use the published range, job count, place pattern, and survey limits as separate facts. The guide stays tied to SOC 53-5021 and the May 2025 BLS release.
Questions, answered
Captains, Mates, and Pilots of Water Vessels: common wage questions
What is the median wage for Captains, Mates, and Pilots of Water Vessels?
The May 2025 BLS OEWS release published a U.S. median of $92,460 per year for Captains, Mates, and Pilots of Water Vessels. It is an occupation estimate, not a promised offer or an individual's pay.
How many Captains, Mates, and Pilots of Water Vessels jobs does BLS estimate nationally?
BLS published an employment estimate of 36,850 wage and salary jobs. The estimate is not a count of current openings and excludes the self-employed.
Why is the mean wage different from the median for Captains, Mates, and Pilots of Water Vessels?
The published annual mean is 12.2% above the median. The mean uses every published wage value, while the median marks the middle of the distribution.
Which metro has the highest published median for Captains, Mates, and Pilots of Water Vessels?
From market data to your evidence
Tailor for a real Captains, Mates, and Pilots of Water Vessels job, not a generic wage number.
Pick an eligible listing, then MeritLog can help you prepare from experience you have confirmed. WageScope never turns a BLS estimate into a qualification or résumé claim.
What the national Captains, Mates, and Pilots of Water Vessels median says
The May 2025 BLS OEWS estimate puts the U.S. median for Captains, Mates, and Pilots of Water Vessels at $92,460 per year. Median means the middle. Half of the wage values used for this estimate fall below that point. Half fall above it. The median is not one worker's pay. It is not a job offer. It is one clear mark for the middle of a broad national pay range.
BLS also lists 36,850 wage and salary jobs for Captains, Mates, and Pilots of Water Vessels. That count covers jobs in the survey's scope. It does not count open job ads. It also leaves out people who work for themselves. The wage and job counts share the same May 2025 reference point, so they can be read together without mixing time periods.
The Captains, Mates, and Pilots of Water Vessels mean of $103,720 per year is 12.2% above the $92,460 median on the same published median. Mean means BLS adds the wage values and divides the total by the number of jobs behind the estimate. A gap between mean and median shows that the shape is not even. It does not explain the cause of the gap.
BLS names this record Captains, Mates, and Pilots of Water Vessels and gives it SOC 53-5021. The two-part code is the stable key for this page. A role with a close name keeps a different code, wage row, job count, and area pattern. WageScope never joins two SOC records because their words sound alike.
For SOC 53-5021, the U.S. row reports 36,850 wage and salary jobs. Its annual median is $92,460 per year. Its matching mean is $103,720 per year. These facts come from one national row and one May 2025 release.
The same SOC 53-5021 appears in 41 state or territory rows, 77 metro rows, and 22 nonmetro rows in this artifact. A missing local row stays missing. The national record does not fill it, and a nearby SOC does not stand in for it.
Read the Captains, Mates, and Pilots of Water Vessels wage ladder from low to high
The 10th percentile is $47,420 per year. The 25th percentile is $63,880 per year. The median is $92,460 per year. The 75th percentile is $127,180 per year. The 90th percentile is $170,640 per year. Each point marks a place in the same national wage spread.
A percentile is a rank point. It is not a career step. For example, the 10th percentile means 10% of wage values are at or below that mark. It does not mean a new worker starts there. The 90th percentile means 90% are at or below that mark. It does not mean a worker can reach it after a set number of years.
The middle half runs from $63,880 to $127,180 per year. That span is $63,300. The full 10th-to-90th span is $123,220. These spans show why one median cannot stand in for every Captains, Mates, and Pilots of Water Vessels job.
What the gaps around the Captains, Mates, and Pilots of Water Vessels median show
The median is 95.0% above the 10th percentile. The 90th percentile is 84.6% above the median. The two sides do not have to match. A wider upper side can pull the mean up. A wider lower side can pull it down. The data shows the shape, but not the reason for that shape.
The 25th-to-median step is $28,580 per year. The median-to-75th step is $34,720 per year. These two steps give a closer look at the middle half. They are often more useful than a single top-to-bottom gap because they keep the center in view.
Use this ladder as a fact check when you read a job post. A posted range can sit below, near, or above these BLS marks. That does not make the post wrong. A job may differ by place, hours, level, field, employer, or work rules. Keep the posted range tied to that listing. Keep the BLS range tied to the whole occupation.
Metro areas with the highest published Captains, Mates, and Pilots of Water Vessels medians
WageScope found 75 metro rows with the same published annual median for Captains, Mates, and Pilots of Water Vessels. It sorts only those rows. It does not fill a blank row. It does not turn a blank into zero. The first six rows below have the highest published medians in this release. The list is a wage rank, not a rank of places to live or work.
The first row is Louisville/Jefferson County, KY-IN, at $130,380 per year. The middle metro row by published pay is Sacramento-Roseville-Folsom, CA, at $78,380 per year. That middle metro mark gives one more check on how far the top rows sit from a common place in the set.
These are nominal wages. Nominal means the dollar amount shown in the source. This list does not adjust for local price levels. It also does not tell us how many openings an area has now. Use a local page to see price-level context when an exact BEA row exists. Use the separate job block to inspect current employer-title matches.
1. Louisville/Jefferson County, KY-IN has a Captains, Mates, and Pilots of Water Vessels median of $130,380 per year, or $37,920 above the U.S. Captains, Mates, and Pilots of Water Vessels median. BLS lists 800 jobs there, against 36,850 across the U.S. The local location quotient is 4.9.
Job count
Metro areas with the largest Captains, Mates, and Pilots of Water Vessels job estimates
A large wage can appear in a small job market. A large job market can have a lower wage. That is why WageScope keeps pay and job count in separate views. The six rows below have the largest published employment estimates for Captains, Mates, and Pilots of Water Vessels among metro rows in this release. Employment means the number of wage and salary jobs in scope. It does not mean open roles.
Houston-Pasadena-The Woodlands, TX has the largest listed metro estimate in this set, at 2,550 jobs. Its median is $118,830 per year. Compare that with Louisville/Jefferson County, KY-IN, which leads the published median list. The leaders may match, or they may not. Each list answers a different question.
Job count can help you see the scale of a local labor market. It cannot show churn, new hiring, job quality, remote work, or the chance that one person will get hired. Current listings add a second view, but they are a dated sample of posts. WageScope never turns the listing count into a demand score.
1. Houston-Pasadena-The Woodlands, TX has 2,550 estimated Captains, Mates, and Pilots of Water Vessels jobs, or 6.9% of the national 36,850 job estimate. Its median is $118,830 per year, or $26,370 above the U.S. Captains, Mates, and Pilots of Water Vessels median. Its location quotient is 3.28.
Local share
Where Captains, Mates, and Pilots of Water Vessels has a larger share of local jobs
Location quotient is a share check. A value of 1 means the role has the same share of local jobs as it has across the nation. A value above 1 means the local share is larger. A value below 1 means the local share is smaller. It is not a count. It is not a wage. It does not say that a place is growing.
Houma-Bayou Cane-Thibodaux, LA has the highest published location quotient in this bounded metro set, at 103.03. The same row lists 2,040 jobs and a median of $103,780 per year. Reading all three values keeps a high share from being mistaken for a large market or high pay.
A small area can have a high location quotient because the role makes up a large part of a small local job base. A large area can have many workers and a lower quotient. Use the quotient to ask where the role is common in the mix. Use employment to ask how many jobs BLS estimated. Use the wage fields to ask what the published pay range looks like.
1. Houma-Bayou Cane-Thibodaux, LA has a Captains, Mates, and Pilots of Water Vessels location quotient of 103.03. BLS lists 2,040 jobs and a median of $103,780 per year, or $11,320 above the U.S. Captains, Mates, and Pilots of Water Vessels median. The U.S. job estimate is 36,850.
SOC family
How Captains, Mates, and Pilots of Water Vessels sits in Transportation and Material Moving
Captains, Mates, and Pilots of Water Vessels is SOC 53-5021. BLS places it in the Transportation and Material Moving major group. Among 50 detailed roles in that group with a published annual median, Captains, Mates, and Pilots of Water Vessels ranks 5 of 50 by median. This is a pay rank inside one source family. It is not a rank of skill, value, status, or career fit.
The closest same-family medians help set a fair peer frame. They do not claim that the work is the same. Official SOC titles can cover different tasks and settings. WageScope uses the family only because BLS publishes that link. It does not infer a career move, a skill match, or a hiring path from the wage gap.
Use these peer rows to spot whether the $92,460 median sits near many family roles or far from them. Then open a role's own page before using its number. Each role has a different code, job count, wage spread, and place pattern. One family label does not erase those facts.
1. Transportation Inspectors, SOC 53-6051, has a U.S. median of $92,100 per year. Its gap from Captains, Mates, and Pilots of Water Vessels is $360 per year.
2. Subway and Streetcar Operators, SOC 53-4041, has a U.S. median of $86,380 per year. Its gap from Captains, Mates, and Pilots of Water Vessels is $6,080 per year.
Data care
How much care to use with the Captains, Mates, and Pilots of Water Vessels estimate
BLS marks the employment relative standard error at 2.8%. It marks the mean-wage relative standard error at 2.2%. A relative standard error, or RSE, is a survey precision flag. A smaller RSE often means less sampling uncertainty. It is not the chance that one worker's pay is right or wrong.
The employment RSE applies to the 36,850 job estimate. The mean-wage RSE applies to the published mean of $103,720 per year. These fields do not give a matching RSE for the median or each percentile. WageScope shows the fields BLS published and does not move one RSE to another measure.
Survey values can change when BLS updates its methods, sample, models, or source year. That is why this page keeps May 2025 in view. A later release can replace these facts only after MeritLog pins the new official files, checks the rows, and reviews the page again. A changed number is not treated as a correction unless the source says so.
A simple way to compare Captains, Mates, and Pilots of Water Vessels across places
First, compare the same wage metric. Use annual with annual or hourly with hourly. Next, check the source date. Keep May 2025 BLS rows together. Then read employment and location quotient beside pay. This stops a high median from standing in for market size or local share. Last, add BEA price-level context only when the exact place has an approved row.
A state, metro, and nonmetro area are not the same kind of map. Do not rank them in one list without saying so. WageScope groups like with like. It also keeps a national row as a broad bench mark. A local page can show the local row, its state row when that link is exact, and the U.S. row without blending them.
If a value is blank, keep it blank. If BLS marks a top code, read it as a lower bound. Do not fill a blank from a nearby place. Do not turn a wage gap into a claim about taxes, hours, benefits, work rules, or a household budget. Those facts are not in the OEWS row.
Move from Captains, Mates, and Pilots of Water Vessels wage data to one real listing
The job block on this page uses a strict employer-title match for Captains, Mates, and Pilots of Water Vessels. It may show fewer rows than the full MeritLog job search. That is on purpose. A false negative is safer here than a job card for a different role. Each card keeps its employer, place, source, and seen date. The cards do not change the BLS wage data.
Open one listing and read its own pay, work place, level, and needs. Compare its posted range with the BLS spread only as context. A posted range is set by an employer for one role. The BLS range is a survey view across many jobs. Neither source proves that a person is fit for the work.
When you tailor a résumé, use work facts you can back up. Do not turn $92,460 into a skill or result. Do not copy a BLS job count into your work history. MeritLog can help shape confirmed experience for a chosen listing. The wage page stays public and read only. It does not save a job or create a résumé on page load.
What this Captains, Mates, and Pilots of Water Vessels page does not claim
This page does not say what one Captains, Mates, and Pilots of Water Vessels worker earns. It does not promise that a job pays the median. It does not state a starting wage. It does not explain why the mean and median differ. It does not add benefits, tips, stock, bonus pay, taxes, or work hours unless BLS includes them in the published wage measure.
The page does not count people who work for themselves. It does not turn 36,850 into current openings. It does not read private MeritLog jobs or Career Memory. MeritLog does not use the page to build a private career profile. While public analytics are on, GA4, Ahrefs, and Meta may receive the public page URL; Your Privacy Choices or Global Privacy Control turns that off. The page does not send its text to a model.
The best use is narrow and clear. Read the May 2025 BLS wage range. Check how the role changes by place. Add the separate 2024 BEA price level when an exact row exists. Inspect a dated employer-title match. Then make a résumé choice from facts you have confirmed. Keep each source tied to the question it can answer.
Louisville/Jefferson County, KY-IN has the highest annual median among the metro rows with a published value on this page, at $130,380. This is a nominal BLS estimate with no price-level adjustment.
Are the current job listings included in the BLS wage calculation?
No. MeritLog shows eligible live public-catalog listings separately, with their own source and observation date. Posted pay never changes the official BLS distribution.
2. Baton Rouge, LA has a Captains, Mates, and Pilots of Water Vessels median of $129,260 per year, or $36,800 above the U.S. Captains, Mates, and Pilots of Water Vessels median. BLS lists 900 jobs there, against 36,850 across the U.S. The local location quotient is 9.27.
3. San Francisco-Oakland-Fremont, CA has a Captains, Mates, and Pilots of Water Vessels median of $124,610 per year, or $32,150 above the U.S. Captains, Mates, and Pilots of Water Vessels median. BLS lists 440 jobs there, against 36,850 across the U.S. The local location quotient is 0.78.
4. New Orleans-Metairie, LA has a Captains, Mates, and Pilots of Water Vessels median of $121,710 per year, or $29,250 above the U.S. Captains, Mates, and Pilots of Water Vessels median. BLS lists 1,940 jobs there, against 36,850 across the U.S. The local location quotient is 18.4.
5. Slidell-Mandeville-Covington, LA has a Captains, Mates, and Pilots of Water Vessels median of $120,810 per year, or $28,350 above the U.S. Captains, Mates, and Pilots of Water Vessels median. BLS lists 580 jobs there, against 36,850 across the U.S. The local location quotient is 25.08.
6. Lake Charles, LA has a Captains, Mates, and Pilots of Water Vessels median of $119,630 per year, or $27,170 above the U.S. Captains, Mates, and Pilots of Water Vessels median. BLS lists 150 jobs there, against 36,850 across the U.S. The local location quotient is 6.04.
2. New York-Newark-Jersey City, NY-NJ has 2,060 estimated Captains, Mates, and Pilots of Water Vessels jobs, or 5.6% of the national 36,850 job estimate. Its median is $106,230 per year, or $13,770 above the U.S. Captains, Mates, and Pilots of Water Vessels median. Its location quotient is 0.92.
3. Virginia Beach-Chesapeake-Norfolk, VA-NC has 2,050 estimated Captains, Mates, and Pilots of Water Vessels jobs, or 5.6% of the national 36,850 job estimate. Its median is $86,940 per year, or $5,520 below the U.S. Captains, Mates, and Pilots of Water Vessels median. Its location quotient is 11.34.
4. Houma-Bayou Cane-Thibodaux, LA has 2,040 estimated Captains, Mates, and Pilots of Water Vessels jobs, or 5.5% of the national 36,850 job estimate. Its median is $103,780 per year, or $11,320 above the U.S. Captains, Mates, and Pilots of Water Vessels median. Its location quotient is 103.03.
5. New Orleans-Metairie, LA has 1,940 estimated Captains, Mates, and Pilots of Water Vessels jobs, or 5.3% of the national 36,850 job estimate. Its median is $121,710 per year, or $29,250 above the U.S. Captains, Mates, and Pilots of Water Vessels median. Its location quotient is 18.4.
6. Miami-Fort Lauderdale-West Palm Beach, FL has 1,710 estimated Captains, Mates, and Pilots of Water Vessels jobs, or 4.6% of the national 36,850 job estimate. Its median is $78,280 per year, or $14,180 below the U.S. Captains, Mates, and Pilots of Water Vessels median. Its location quotient is 2.55.
2. Slidell-Mandeville-Covington, LA has a Captains, Mates, and Pilots of Water Vessels location quotient of 25.08. BLS lists 580 jobs and a median of $120,810 per year, or $28,350 above the U.S. Captains, Mates, and Pilots of Water Vessels median. The U.S. job estimate is 36,850.
3. New Orleans-Metairie, LA has a Captains, Mates, and Pilots of Water Vessels location quotient of 18.4. BLS lists 1,940 jobs and a median of $121,710 per year, or $29,250 above the U.S. Captains, Mates, and Pilots of Water Vessels median. The U.S. job estimate is 36,850.
4. Virginia Beach-Chesapeake-Norfolk, VA-NC has a Captains, Mates, and Pilots of Water Vessels location quotient of 11.34. BLS lists 2,050 jobs and a median of $86,940 per year, or $5,520 below the U.S. Captains, Mates, and Pilots of Water Vessels median. The U.S. job estimate is 36,850.
5. Baton Rouge, LA has a Captains, Mates, and Pilots of Water Vessels location quotient of 9.27. BLS lists 900 jobs and a median of $129,260 per year, or $36,800 above the U.S. Captains, Mates, and Pilots of Water Vessels median. The U.S. job estimate is 36,850.
6. Kahului-Wailuku, HI has a Captains, Mates, and Pilots of Water Vessels location quotient of 7.83. BLS lists 140 jobs and a median of $80,800 per year, or $11,660 below the U.S. Captains, Mates, and Pilots of Water Vessels median. The U.S. job estimate is 36,850.
3. Locomotive Engineers, SOC 53-4011, has a U.S. median of $81,410 per year. Its gap from Captains, Mates, and Pilots of Water Vessels is $11,050 per year.
4. Railroad Conductors and Yardmasters, SOC 53-4031, has a U.S. median of $78,000 per year. Its gap from Captains, Mates, and Pilots of Water Vessels is $14,460 per year.
5. Gas Compressor and Gas Pumping Station Operators, SOC 53-7071, has a U.S. median of $77,320 per year. Its gap from Captains, Mates, and Pilots of Water Vessels is $15,140 per year.
6. Ship Engineers, SOC 53-5031, has a U.S. median of $109,530 per year. Its gap from Captains, Mates, and Pilots of Water Vessels is $17,070 per year.
Captains, Mates, and Pilots of Water Vessels wages | BLS 2025
Current jobs
Precise employer-title matches for Captains, Mates, and Pilots of Water Vessels
Matched from employer-posted title terms, not a BLS classification. Confirm the listing's location because this occupation-wide set is not a U.S. place filter. A posted range never changes the official distribution above.
