Our latest salary survey among superyacht HODs reveals salary and package information for Chief Engineers.
More than 100 responses were collected from both newly appointed and experienced Chief Engineers onboard yachts ranging from 40m to 100m+ yachts. The analysis contains detailed comparisons between yacht size and usage, ticket and experience.
The key findings are:
- The current average salary across all yacht sizes for a Chief Engineer is €11,479.
- 9 in 10 Chief Engineers are on time for time rotation.
- Over half of respondents have 5+ years experience as a Chief Engineer.
- 2 in 5 have Chief Engineer Unlimited and 26% have the newer Smaller Vessel tickets.
- Only 13% receive an annual pay rise as part of their contract, but a further 42% do get a yearly increase.
- Over a third do not get a pay rise or haven’t yet had one on their current yacht and are not sure if they will.
- The most common bonus package is a 13th month bonus, which applies to 44% of Chief Engineers who responded. 15% receive no bonus.
Alice Hay, Engineering Consultant at Quay Crew, commented:
“The findings in this survey give an indicative overview of Chief Engineer salaries and packages, with a decent amount of responses across most yacht size brackets.
“The reality, however, is that there will always be anomalies, both good and bad, that can skew the figures. For example, the highest salary recorded of €20,000 is onboard a 70-79m yacht, but there are also a few that sit under €9,500. Two respondents also claim to have EOOW Unlimited only, which may only be possible as a Sole Engineer on a small yacht.
“From our experience, the average Chief Engineer salaries we see across 40m to 80m yachts sit between €8,500 and €11,000 per month. The average in this report is probably indicative of the good longevity of some of the respondents.
“We are seeing salaries for new build projects and 90m+ yachts increasing, with some very generous packages of up to €16,000 to attract the best Chief Engineers.”
Alice continued:
“It is the 90-99m size bracket that appears to have the most experienced Chief Engineers onboard (11.25 years), while the average experience of those onboard 100m+ yachts is the lowest at 6.1 years. The same number of Chief Engineers responded in both size brackets.
“We are also surprised at the number of those with Chief Engineer Unlimited onboard 50-59m yachts. With 9 years’ experience, you’d expect to find these engineers on the larger yachts demanding a higher salary.”
All HOD salary surveys are available within our private client portal, which is currently being refined to deliver an enhanced experience. Limited access for new members will be introduced in 2025.
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