Midshipman Salary?

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HelloThere@0604

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Hi, I'm new to the forum and I was curious if the students at USMMA receive a monthly salary like the other service academies, and if so how much do the students get paid?
 
HelloThere@0604 said:
Hi, I'm new to the forum and I was curious if the students at USMMA receive a monthly salary like the other service academies, and if so how much do the students get paid?
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No, they don’t. Unlike the DoD SAs and USCGA, USMMA midshipmen are not on active duty. They do earn money when at sea. I am sure some of the USMMA regulars will comment.

See these links. If you haven’t yet read every page, link and dropdown menu item on USMMA.edu, I recommend it as a good first step to getting answers from a primary source.

Fees and Expenses | U.S. Merchant Marine Academy

The Federal Government pays the majority of the costs associated with enrollment at USMMA. Midshipmen receive tuition, room and board, uniforms, and textbooks at no cost.
www.usmma.edu

Sea Year | U.S. Merchant Marine Academy

The World is Our Campus
www.usmma.edu
 
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Capt MJ said:
No, they don’t. Unlike the DoD SAs and USCGA, USMMA midshipmen are not on active duty. They do earn money when at sea. I am sure some of the USMMA regulars will comment.

See these links. If you haven’t yet read every page, link and dropdown menu item on USMMA.edu, I recommend it as a good first step to getting answers from a primary source.

Fees and Expenses | U.S. Merchant Marine Academy

The Federal Government pays the majority of the costs associated with enrollment at USMMA. Midshipmen receive tuition, room and board, uniforms, and textbooks at no cost.
www.usmma.edu

Sea Year | U.S. Merchant Marine Academy

The World is Our Campus
www.usmma.edu
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Pay at sea is about $1200 a month for ~11 months. While at school there's no pay, but USAA starter loan 36k @ 0.75% junior year.
 
NO.

Pay received from the commercial shipping companies is received, but you are a student and not an employee so minimum wage FLSA does not apply, in general.

My family bread winner lost his job my senior year of high school. I had little money, had to hustle, scrimp and save. My sea pay was used to pay my student loan interest. I graduate with between 10 to 15k in school debt.

Other went on vacations and long weekend, I used sports to travel. Rarely got to party in NYC.

By senior year I had a regular local job for a few hours a week.

Looking back I am actually surprised how I got through everything with so little money. Glad I didn't get trapped overseas as I gad no financial resource backup to draw on.

The thing to keep in mind is at the other academies, the pay received is then used to buy your uniforms, books, and all the other expenses. At kp, they have to issue you books and uniforms without you paying for it. However, the school fees are for services like uniforms, tailoring, laundry, buying your computer, cg fees,....


There was a GAO investigation in like 2009 where they had to refund the school fees as they were charging for inherently governmental stuff.
 
Mr2020 said:
Pay at sea is about $1200 a month for ~11 months. While at school there's no pay, but USAA starter loan 36k @ 0.75% junior year.
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Correct me if I’m wrong, but I think there’s no pay when they’re on a training vessel.. as many of our ‘24 A-splits are doing right now.
 
ChaggyC17 said:
Correct me if I’m wrong, but I think there’s no pay when they’re on a training vessel.. as many of our ‘24 A-splits are doing right now.
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Correct, government vessels do not pay.

Overall, for sea year they are students in layman's terms and thus aren't eligible for minimum wage per FLSA. However, a legal argument could be made that if they are performing similar duties as other employee seaman then FLSA applies.
 
vortexkp99 said:
Correct, government vessels do not pay.

Overall, for sea year they are students in layman's terms and thus aren't eligible for minimum wage per FLSA. However, a legal argument could be made that if they are performing similar duties as other employee seaman then FLSA applies.
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Government vessels or government training vessels get no pay? So during a regular year if assigned to a navy ship do they earn pay?
 
ChaggyC17 said:
Correct me if I’m wrong, but I think there’s no pay when they’re on a training vessel.. as many of our ‘24 A-splits are doing right now.
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I wasn't talking about training vessels. For the training vessel, MARAD is paying tuition to the SMA operating the TV for each student, and they're definitely not working. If you look at the tuition that SMA cadets are paying for that experience, it's a great deal to get it for free.

There is no pay for training vessel or commissioned warships. MARAD RRF's on ROS have been paid on and off. I believe if they have too many cadets they cut the pay, that one's uncertain.
 
46 CFR 310.60(c) Pay. Midshipmen shall receive pay while employed aboard merchant vessels directly from the steamship company employers at the same rate received by cadets and midshipmen at the other Federal academies.

Training ships and MSC/MARAD owned vessels are defined as "school ships" and "public vessels" in the Code of Federal Regulation and so are not "merchant vessels". I could not find a definition for "steamship" or "steamship company".

Interesting but off topic ... 46 CFR 310.5 (b)(2) requires the Chief Engineers of training ships to hold steam licenses. Curious if they will change that once the NMSVs are delivered.
 
KPEngineer said:
Training ships and MSC/MARAD owned vessels are defined as "school ships" and "public vessels" in the Code of Federal Regulation and so are not "merchant vessels". I could not find a definition for "steamship" or "steamship company".
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All cadets on MSC vessels are paid by MSC, at the posted salary for deck/engine cadet. ref: east/west coast pay charts. Cadets on MARAD owned vessels are usually paid, unless there's a large number of cadets there as there is now. That's mostly incorrect.
 
Mr2020 said:
All cadets on MSC vessels are paid by MSC, at the posted salary for deck/engine cadet. ref: east/west coast pay charts. Cadets on MARAD owned vessels are usually paid, unless there's a large number of cadets there as there is now. That's mostly incorrect.
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I never said if they are paid or not, I simply quoted the CFR which requires payment of USMMA cadets and commented on how ships are defined in the CFRs. I am 100% correct
 
KPEngineer said:
I never said if they are paid or not, I simply quoted the CFR which requires payment of USMMA cadets and commented on how ships are defined in the CFRs. I am 100% correct
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That stuff is all outdated anyways, KP is a joke and waste of money anyways these days. The superintendent is an Exxon executive in an admiral's uniform with minimal background in the IRR, what a joke.
 
Mr2020 said:
All cadets on MSC vessels are paid by MSC, at the posted salary for deck/engine cadet. ref: east/west coast pay charts. Cadets on MARAD owned vessels are usually paid, unless there's a large number of cadets there as there is now. That's mostly incorrect.
Click to expand...

Mr2020 said:
That stuff is all outdated anyways, KP is a joke and waste of money anyways these days. The superintendent is an Exxon executive in an admiral's uniform with minimal background in the IRR, what a joke.
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Correction, the Superintendent, a Senior Exexcutive Service [SES] government employee, also appears to be also a member in the US Maritime Service [a US Code 46 voluntary organization] by wearing that uniform.
 
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