Referee salaries

[albionroad]

What sort of payment do referees at the MLS level receive? Are they full-time professionals? Part-time? What about the lower divisions or college-level referees? Any idea?

[nsa]

The MLS referees are not full-time professional referees.

IIRC from a talk that Herb Silva gave a couple
years ago, there are three or four pay grades in MLS. I think the low (new National Referee) was somewhere around $250. $600 sticks in my mind as the high end (FIFA), but that seems to be too high.

College is upwards of $100 per game.

[MassachusettsRef]

PDL and W-League are $70 + $50 travel/per diem for a total of $120 for a CR. ARs make $40 plus travel/per diem if applicable.

PSL is $120 + $50 travel/per diem for a total of $170 for a CR. ARs make $70 plus travel/per diem if applicable. 4ths make $40 plus per diem (can't claim travel so they're usually local, ie within 50 miles roundtrip).

Not sure about the exact numbers for A-League, but they're a little higher (I think CRs are in the $200-$250 range). Plus, oftentimes CRs for A-League are flown in, so hotel and airfare is also included.

MLS does have, as nsa mentioned, a graded pay scale depending on experience in the league and grade (FIFAs are automatically at the high end of the scale, I believe). I think--but can't confirm because I can't find a copy of the MLS handbook--the highest fee for a CR is $650. I think the 'entry level', if you can call it that, is around $400 or $450. I think the $250 figure nsa is remembering is for ARs or 4ths, but I could be wrong.

[albionroad]

Thanks for the info.

It's a bit sobering to read how little they're paid considering all the crap they go through each week. Any idea about leagues in Europe? Spain, Italy, England...are those referees full-time?

[ProfZodiac]

Simply put, refs aren't paid enough.

[MassachusettsRef]

Originally posted by albionroad
Thanks for the info.

It's a bit sobering to read how little they're paid considering all the crap they go through each week. Any idea about leagues in Europe? Spain, Italy, England...are those referees full-time? There simply just isn't enough money in the USL, or really, in MLS for that matter. Some USL clubs fold every year, and referee fees are just one more additional fee that puts a strain on struggling clubs. In MLS, it's hard to pay referees thousands of dollars when players aren't making that much.

The real money in the US for referees is, unfortunately, in the NCAA, since colleges (and not a soccer-specific organization) is footing the bill. So money taken in through students or other sports can be used to pay referees.

Insofar as Europe goes, I don't have numbers--exact or rough--for any country, except England. When they went to a professional corps of referees, I remember the figure of 90,000 a year being thrown around, I just can't remember if that was in British pounds or in US dollars.

[ProfZodiac]

90,000 a year is good money in every currency, save the lira and the yen.

[gkeck]

Depends on the ranking of the official, and the assigned position.
MLS $135-610
A League 50-150
D3 45-125
PDL 25-70
W 25-70
WUSA 100-400

3 days of time....Not enough $$$

[kevbrunton]

Isn't the EPL the only ones that have salaried full-time referees? And for them, it's only the centers.

They have something like 24 referees that are paid full time.

For college referees around here...

The lower level D3 and NAIA games are generally around $100-$140 for the CR and $60 to $100 for the AR.

Here are the fees for D1 mid-major conferences in the midwest.

Horizon League $200 CR, $100 AR
Mid American $150 CR, $100 AR
Ohio Valley $125 + 0.25 per mile CR, $75 AR

I don't have definitive figures for the Big 10 and Big East but I've heard they pay around $250 for CR plus travel and $150 to $175 for the AR and 4th.

For high school games in our area, most schools pay $40 for JV and $50 for Varsity. The pay is the same for all 3 officials.

[Keep]

Originally posted by ProfZodiac
Simply put, refs aren't paid enough.

Neither are teachers. ;-)

[Keith]

Amen, Keep!

Ah, referee "pay" . .used to be the taboo subject of the p-referees "we don't do it for the money!"

I've only known one referee that pretty survived off officiating, and that was my neighbor, Esse Baharmast. I think he was an engineer by trade, but all he did before he did the WC was officiate MLS and sell OSI products. Now, well he has a job, but obvoiusly you can't make a living being a referee; or can you? Someone has said foriegn soccer referees are salaried or paid enough to make it a good living? What about other sports referees here? I think most of the pro football, basketball, baseball referees also have other jobs?

What about the youth/amateur adult/high school pay in your area? Here in Colorado, we're on the low end, but our youth started catching up. In highs school due to budget cuts (they froze all HS sports officials pay) and going to the three-whistle system the refs really got screwed. We used to make $46/$31 for the DSC, but when we went 3W, and all officials are "equal" they pay us all $40/ea ($31 sub-varsity). . .while our other sports HS counterparts are making $55/ea, regardless of sport. I always said the referees screwed themselves by insisting the AR get less, just to keep the position subservient. Other sports, they all seem to alway get the same pay. Soccer just never progresses like it should, it seems.

[MassachusettsRef]

Originally posted by Keith
What about other sports referees here? I think most of the pro football, basketball, baseball referees also have other jobs?
Only pro football referees tend to have other jobs, since they only work about 16 Sundays a week. NHL, NBA, and MLB officials are all paid by salary--and paid well. With the travel demands and long length of the season, most of them do not keep another job during their short offseasons.

[Jeff L]

The English referees in the EPL are all professional, including the AR's. I believe that the Italian "Serie A" is as well, but I'm not too sure.
The English guys get £600 for the middle ($900) and the AR's are around £400 ($600). All are full time with the exception of David Ellery who gets paid as a pro, but still does his teaching job.

[ProfZodiac]

Originally posted by MassachusettsRef
Only pro football referees tend to have other jobs, since they only work about 16 Sundays a week. NHL, NBA, and MLB officials are all paid by salary--and paid well. With the travel demands and long length of the season, most of them do not keep another job during their short offseasons.

16 Sundays a week? Wow, that's some damn big overtime!

[firstshirt]

here is what we get paid for HS and Prep games in ct.
High School Varsity (Boys / Girls) - $69.95
High School Sub-Varsity and Below - $45.27
High School Sub-Varsity and Below (One Official) - $67.90

Prep School (Boys Varsity) - $77.00 (45 Min. Halves)
Prep School (Girls Varsity) - $71.00 (40 Min. Halves)
Prep School Sub-Varsity and Below - $46.00
Prep School Sub-Varsity and Below (One Official) - $69.00

[stevieb]

Originally posted by kevbrunton
For college referees around here...

The lower level D3 and NAIA games are generally around $100-$140 for the CR and $60 to $100 for the AR.

Here are the fees for D1 mid-major conferences in the midwest.

Horizon League $200 CR, $100 AR
Mid American $150 CR, $100 AR
Ohio Valley $125 + 0.25 per mile CR, $75 AR

I don't have definitive figures for the Big 10 and Big East but I've heard they pay around $250 for CR plus travel and $150 to $175 for the AR and 4th.


Our DII league in Colorado (RMAC) pays $130 for CR and $110 for AR (no 4ths) . And the amount you list for Big 10 is I believe similar to what the Big 12 pays. The Mountain West (D1) pays about the same as RMAC as I recall.

[Greyhnd00]

Originally posted by Keep
Neither are teachers. ;-) Dont forget to take the pay and increase it by 1/4 for the three months off in the summer!!! ;)

[nsa]

Originally posted by Greyhnd00
Dont forget to take the pay and increase it by 1/4 for the three months off in the summer!!! ;) Way off base, gh. Teachers are not paid for the summer. Many have to find other jobs to make ends meet. Because school contracts typically run just for the months that school is in session, teachers also have to fund their own health insurance during the summer break. Even during the school year, a typical teacher will spend 3 hours working outside the classroom for every 6 hours in. How'd you like to give your company an extra 50% of your time without additional compensation?

[Alberto]

Originally posted by nsa
Way off base, gh. Teachers are not paid for the summer. Many have to find other jobs to make ends meet. Because school contracts typically run just for the months that school is in session, teachers also have to fund their own health insurance during the summer break. Even during the school year, a typical teacher will spend 3 hours working outside the classroom for every 6 hours in. How'd you like to give your company an extra 50% of your time without additional compensation?

Nat are you an educator?

Teaching has become a pretty good job in the past 10 years. Yes initial salaries are not great, but with time the salaries are quite good. The key is obtaining tenure. Also most teachers can work summer school or a summer job if they so choose. My girlfriend has time off that I am quite envious of. She taught the first summer session and still had approximately 5-6 weeks off this summer. Also, remember the holidays including a week at Christmas and a week for spring break and you'd have a hard time convincing me that teaching is a woeful job. Also, you can structure your pay so that you receive payments evenly distributed over the year or set aside money each month to carry you over the summer break which is approximately 8-9 weeks. Teachers generally report back 1-2 days before students and stay 1-3 days after students are dismissed for the summer.

I know of many tenured teachers in my kids public school system making over $50K. Some with 20-25 years are making $65K. That's nothing to sneeze at.

[rcleopard]

Nationwide, the average pay for full time teachers is in the low $30K. What you have are exceptions, not rules.

Redcard Leopard