A salary survey conducted in 2019 shows that on average the entry-level interior department position of steward/ess (stews) earns over 6% more each month compared with the equivalent entry-level position in the deck department, that of the deckhand.
Using the data of over 87k logged days for stews and deckhands, we wanted to see whether the higher salary equated to longer working hours onboard and whether the size of the vessel impacts this.
The data
Our findings looked at anonymized data for over 600 deckhands and stews that logged hours in 2019 via the workrest app. A total of 87,576 days were logged, with over a million hours worked throughout the year.
To get our averages, we looked only at days that had been logged as workdays, negating any rest and leave days so as not to distort the average hours worked figure.
For the position of stew, we took crew listed only as stews. No chief, 2nd or 3rd stews have been included.
For the deckhand position, again only crew that were listed as deckhand have been included in the data.
For salary data we used an average of the agency range from the Dockwalk 2019 salary survey.
Average hours per position
From a top-level perspective, our data shows that on average, stews do indeed work slightly longer hours than deckhands.
Across the year, we found that stews work on average 09 hours 32 minutes per day as opposed to the 9 hours 26 minutes worked by deckhands.
Do stews always work longer hours?
Well, it turns out that across the year, stews work longer hours in 9 out of 12 months.
Deckhands only work longer hours on average in February and December, with November seeing the exact same number of hours worked for both positions.
The graph below shows the average hours worked for the deckhand and stew position across the year.
Our top-level conclusion that stews work longer hours does hold up for the majority of the year.
So whilst stews do get paid more, they also work longer hours when compared with deckhands.
Summary
- Stews do work longer hours on average than deckhands (This holds true for most of the year)
- A higher salary does in this instance does equate to longer working hours
Does vessel length impact this?
The next question we wanted to answer was whether vessel length was a factor in the working hours between position (i.e does a deckhand or stews work longer or short hours depending on the size of the vessel).
To do this, we compared the average working hours per position for crew working on boats between:
- 30–50 meters
- 51–70 meters
- 71–90 meters
- 91+ meters
For stews the results looked like this:
So in general, stews work longer hours on vessels 70 meters and below, with the highest average working hours seen on vessels between 51–70 meters.
Crew numbers will play heavily into this with smaller vessels supported by fewer crew, which during the busy summer months could lead to longer working hours. Larger vessels on the flip side may be less susceptible to this given the larger number of crew available, leading to more consistent and shorter working schedules.
The below chart highlights this:
Here we can see that the blue and red lines indicating working hours on vessels between 30–50 and 51–70, are notably higher in the summer months than those of the larger vessels in yellow and green.
Whilst the summer months do mean longer working hours for larger vessels, the difference between the height of the summer and the off-season is less pronounced than that of the crew on smaller vessels.
For deckhands, the results looked like this:
For deckhands, we see the longest average working hours for crew on vessels in the 71–90 meter range. This goes against our theory that larger vessels have shorter working hours and may indicate that this is a factor seen more commonly in the interior department.
With that said, we do still see the lowest working hours on the largest vessels, with 91+ meter vessels seeing an average workday consisting of 9 hours and 9 minutes.
Interestingly, deckhands see less change between vessel size than stews do. This indicates that deckhands are less impacted by the size of the vessel when it comes to working hours.
The below chart highlights the average working hours for both stews and deckhands on the range of vessel sizes.
Summary
- Stews work longer hours on vessels between 51–70 meters.
- Deckhands work longer hours on vessels between 71–90 meters
- Both positions see the shortest working hours on vessels over 91 meters
- Stews are impacted to a greater extent by the size of the vessel when it comes to average working hours
How does this translate to salaries?
So we now know that vessel size does impact average working hours, with the largest boats, in particular, seeing a shorter working day, but do salaries reflect this?
We can see from salary data that as vessel size increases, so too does salary for both positions. We also see a plateau on salary growth beyond 71 meters.
So crew members on larger vessels are on average getting paid higher salaries but working fewer hours.
Summary
- Whilst salary increases with vessel size, working hours do not
Conclusion
There are many things that will impact an individual crew member’s experience in regards to working hours, however, when you’re able to combine data and average out tens of thousands of days, general themes appear which give insight into the differences between roles and the impact vessel size has.
Both stews and deckhands see very similar working patterns over the course of the year with a 9 hour working day either side of the northern hemisphere’s summer season, and a notable increase to well over 10 hours a day during that summer season between the months of June and August.
During the months of March to May, we see the difference between working hours between stews and deckhands increase, with stews working longer hours ahead of the summer season. Could this indicate a higher level of prep required from the interior department pre-season?
It’s perhaps not surprising that during the summer months the crew members that work most closely with guests also work the longest hours. Stews are generally required to be available night and day to cater to guests which is a responsibility that doesn’t always pass over to the deck crew.
Moving away from the summer season we see working hours for both positions equal out as vessels prepare for end of year shows, a yard period or a winter season.
When looking at differences in working hours for both positions on different vessel sizes, it is worth highlighting that shorter working hours are seen on vessels over 91 meters and seasonal variation in hours is less, indicating a more consistent working pattern throughout the year. This makes sense given the ability to distribute working shifts more effectively with a larger workforce, which reduces the likelihood of overworking crew.
What is perhaps counterintuitive is that crew on the largest vessels also get paid the highest salary.
To summarise, our data shows that stews do work longer hours when compared with deckhands and yes vessel size does impact this. To combine this with research into salaries, it’s also clear that stews do get paid more on average.
It also appears that the sweet spot for both positions from wage per hour worked perspective is vessels over 91 meters. Should crew (that are mainly financially motivated) then be looking for positions on larger vessels to capitalize on this?
