Salary
Average Salary: $45,000
Expected Lifetime Earnings: $1,878,660
A career as a dredge operator is not exactly a pathway to riches, but you can definitely earn a decent living doing it. On average, once you have a few years' experience under your belt, you'll be paying taxes on $45,000 of annual earnings (source).
However, this is no desk job that deposits a regular payment in your checking account every two weeks. This business has a very simple philosophy: you get paid when you work, and you don't get paid when you don't work. The trick, therefore, is to work.
Sounds obvious, we know, but it bears emphasizing due to the feast-or-famine nature of your future income. Some dredging jobs are stable and year-round, but generally they're seasonal or short-term.
Say you work a two-week shift, twelve hours a day, at an average hourly rate of nineteen dollars. You'll walk away with a check for nearly $3,200, minus tax withholding, which is a pretty nice chunk of change. But don't run to the racetrack right off the boat. If you blow it all on a longshot named Lucky Day, you'll be eating beans and rice until you manage to get another gig.
You'll need to have a budget in place to make that paycheck stretch until the next payday, which could be a month or more down the road. You'll generally have ten days or more between stints on the boat. For you glass-half-full types, that's what you'd call an extended vacation—but only if you can make the finances work.
Things will be a little tight at first, as newbies only earn about $25,000 per year. Keep your eye on the prize, though; top earners can haul in more than $72,000. But like we said earlier, it's not the money that calls to you, it's the lifestyle.
So no matter the pay, you should enjoy the benefits of the job: being around the water, working with your hands, and basking in the sun (or rain, or moonlight) instead of being chained to a desk. Those are perks money can't buy.