Yacht crew salaries by role

Typical monthly ranges for deck, interior, engineering and galley, and a closer look at yacht chef salary. These are published ranges, not offers.

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Yacht crew pay is a monthly wage that moves with vessel size, private versus charter, rotation, and flag. The figures below are typical ranges drawn from published crew salary guides, not offers and not averages we calculated. Two reputable guides can disagree by a noticeable amount in the same year. Where they disagree, the honest presentation is the wider range, with the reason it is wide, which is what this page does.

How to read these ranges

A single number (“deckhands earn €3,000”) is not how this market works. A junior on a 30-metre private yacht and a lead deckhand on an 80-metre charter yacht do not have the same job. Use the table to see the band for the role, then read the sections under it before you compare the band to a shore salary. Food and a cabin are part of working aboard. Tax is not something we advise on. Your residence, the flag, and how many days you spend where are your problem to check with a qualified person.

Ranges below are compiled from the YPI Crew salary guide and the Flying Fish salary guide, cross-checked in July 2026. They will move. If you are negotiating, ask the boat or the agency what that yacht pays for that role this season, and treat this page as the map of the market rather than the quote.

Approximate monthly salary by role

Monthly figures, before any charter tip. Not a promise of what you will be offered.

What moves the number

• Yacht size is the main one. Larger yachts pay more in every department, because the hours, the guest standard, and the responsibility all go up.
• Private or charter. Charter boats often add a tip. Private boats usually do not. A lower-looking private salary can still be the better life for someone who wants one boss and a quieter guest schedule. A charter salary plus tips can be higher and the season harder.
• Charter tips are often described as around 10 percent of the charter fee, split among the crew. Published illustrations put a single charter's tip pool very roughly at €1,500–€5,000+, shared. It is not guaranteed, it is not a salary, and it does not exist on most private yachts.
• Rotation usually means a lower monthly base, commonly described as about 10 to 20 percent less, in exchange for time off. See below.
• Ticket and rank. An officer, a chief engineer, or a head chef is not on the junior scale. The table's wide rows are wide because they cover several ranks.

What the salary does and does not include

While you are employed and on board, the package normally covers:

• A cabin and meals. Crew eat aboard. You are not paying rent in Antibes during the weeks you are working.
• Uniform, on most professionally run yachts.
• Medical insurance on many managed yachts. Confirm it. It is common, not universal.
• Flights to join and to leave, and for rotational crew the flights that the rotation implies. Confirm whose ticket and which cabin.

What it usually does not cover: your own certificates and renewals (STCW refreshers, the ENG1, extra tickets), the weeks between contracts when you are ashore paying for yourself, and any pension. A modest monthly figure can turn into a high savings rate while you are aboard, and into zero income the month you are not. That is the comparison that matters, not the headline next to a shore job that pays you every month of the year and expects you to fund a flat.

Yacht chef salary

Yacht chef pay is typically quoted from about €3,000 a month to €12,000 or more. That is not a sloppy range. It is several different jobs sitting in one row of the salary guides.

Sole chef on a smaller private yacht

One person cooks for a small crew and for the owners when they are aboard. The menu is still expected to be good. The volume is not a hotel. Pay sits toward the bottom of the band. You do your own provisioning, your own storage, and your own dishes unless an interior person is helping. This is the role a strong cook with real kitchen experience can be hired into without a decade of yacht sea time. It is not a green-crew role. Boats do not teach someone to cook from nothing in the middle of a charter.

Head chef on a charter yacht

A large charter yacht may run several services a day to a restaurant standard, with guest allergies, a provisioning plan that has to work in a small port, and a sous chef or crew cook alongside. That job is the top of the band, and the very top overlaps senior shore kitchen salaries. Charter operation and the number of guests move the wage more than the length of the hull, because the work is covers and standards, not metres. Tips, when the charter pays them, are shared with the whole crew. They are not the chef's alone.

What boats ask a chef to bring

Professional cooking experience is the requirement that does not move. A food-hygiene certificate is commonly requested. The exact level depends on the flag and the yacht, so confirm it rather than assuming a particular national certificate is universal. An ENG1 and STCW are still expected once you are crew, not only deck crew. You join the safety list like everyone else.

Day-to-day, the job is crew meals whether or not guests are aboard, then a different menu when they are. Dietary requirements are normal, not a special occasion. Provisioning is part of the skill: you spend the owner's money in a market that may be expensive and badly stocked, and you are judged on both the plate and the invoice. On a crossing, you cook what you brought.

See how yachts currently describe the role on chef jobs on the board. Titles vary: chef, head chef, crew chef, sous chef. Read the guest count and whether the boat is charter or private before you compare the salary to the table.

Deck and interior

Junior deck and junior interior start in the same band, about €2,000–€3,200 a month. That is the green-crew wage. It rises once you have a season behind you and can be left with a job unsupervised. Experienced deckhands are quoted from about €3,000, bosuns higher and more dependent on the size of the boat, because a bosun on a 70-metre is running a department. Chief stews span a wide band for the same reason: a chief stew on a busy charter yacht is closer to a hotel manager than to the junior who made the beds on their first boat.

None of those jumps happen in week one. The way into the junior band is the path in how to get a yacht job with no experience, not a salary negotiation. Look at deckhand listings and interior listings for the wording boats use.

Engineering

Engineer pay scales harder with ticket and tonnage than any other department. Published guides show junior engineers from roughly €3,500–€8,000 a month and chief engineers from roughly €8,000 to €20,000 or more on large yachts. The ticket structure itself is an MCA matter and it has been revised in recent years. We do not restate the current ranks here, because a slightly wrong ticket name is worse than a link. Check the MCA if you are planning the engineering route. It is not a green-crew route.

Rotation, and why the monthly figure misleads

A rotational role is commonly worked as equal time on and off. The monthly base is lower, often described as about 10–20 percent below the permanent equivalent, because the yacht is paying you for the time you are not there as well as the time you are. Comparing the two monthly numbers as if they were the same kind of job understates the rotational package and overstates the permanent one. The fair comparison is pay per day on board, plus whether you wanted the time at home.

Rotation shows up most in senior roles, engineering, and on larger yachts. A first-season deckhand or stew should assume a permanent season, not a 5-weeks-on rota. Chefs follow the same pattern: rotational head-chef jobs exist on big yachts, and they are not the offer a first yacht chef should budget for.

Read next

• How to get a yacht job with no experience
• Daywork and seasons, for what you earn before a monthly salary
• The ENG1 medical and STCW, which you pay for yourself
• Live jobs, including chefs

Sources: YPI Crew, Flying Fish. Figures checked July 2026.

Frequently asked questions

How much do yacht crew get paid?

Published crew salary guides put typical monthly pay in broad ranges that depend on role and yacht size. Junior deckhands and junior stewardesses are often quoted around €2,000 to €3,200 a month. Senior roles, especially chief engineers and head chefs on large yachts, sit much higher. Treat every figure as a typical range, not an offer.

How much does a yacht chef earn?

Chef is one of the widest ranges on a yacht. Published guides put chef and head chef pay at roughly €3,000 to €12,000 or more a month. A sole chef on a smaller private yacht is toward the lower end. A head chef on a large charter yacht, running guest service and a galley team, is toward the top. Charter work and guest numbers move chef pay more than length alone.

Do yacht crew get tips?

On charter yachts, a tip is often described as around 10 percent of the charter fee, split across the crew. Published illustrations put that very roughly at €1,500 to €5,000 or more per charter, shared, not per person. Private yachts usually do not tip. A salary conversation that ignores this will compare a charter job and a private job as if they were the same package.

Is a yacht salary monthly, and what does it include?

Crew wages are talked about as a monthly figure. While you are on board, accommodation and food are part of the job, uniform is commonly provided, and many professionally run yachts provide medical insurance and flights to join and leave. The salary usually does not include your certificates, time ashore between jobs, or a pension. It is not comparable to a shore salary of the same number.

Why is rotation paid less?

Rotational jobs, often equal time on and off, are commonly quoted with a monthly base about 10 to 20 percent lower than a permanent role, in exchange for the time off. Comparing the monthly headline without counting days worked makes the rotational job look worse than it is. Rotation is more common in senior and engineering roles, and on larger yachts. Junior crew should not expect it in a first season.