Pay Rates

[tnzebra]

Tennessee is increasing to $85 on field and $60 for ECO this year. Travel only in the playoffs.

[Bob M.]

REPLY: $72-$76 is pretty much the norm in NJ with some outlier conferences paying slightly less or more. No travel paid for anything--playoffs or regular season. State playoff game fees have always been less than most regular season games.

[waltjp]

Originally Posted by Bob M.

REPLY: $72-$76 is pretty much the norm in NJ with some outlier conferences paying slightly less or more. No travel paid for anything--playoffs or regular season. State playoff game fees have always been less than most regular season games.

Bob, I've hit the rule books after reading some of your replies to read up on something you've stated - but I've never had to reach for the dictionary before today.

outlier (n) - a statistical observation that is markedly different in value from the others of the sample

[The Roamin' Umpire]

Originally Posted by Bob M.

REPLY: $72-$76 is pretty much the norm in NJ with some outlier conferences paying slightly less or more. No travel paid for anything--playoffs or regular season. State playoff game fees have always been less than most regular season games.

Of course, in Jersey, there really isn't a reason to pay travel. Our section of NY is bigger than half the state of NJ. (Then again, we have less traffic most of the time.)

[Mike22Official]

I'm a rookie but I believe we here in South Carolina get paid $72 a game plus 35 cents a mile for travel.

[TXMike]

Texas varsity pay is based on gate proceeds so the pay varies but the minimum is $40 ( I have NEVER heard of anyone getting that small a check.) If you are working the larger schools with even moderate fan support you are going to get close to $100. Schools with large fan support can easily get the check up to $150+.

[waltjp]

Originally Posted by The Roamin' Umpire

Of course, in Jersey, there really isn't a reason to pay travel. Our section of NY is bigger than half the state of NJ. (Then again, we have less traffic most of the time.)

You could spend over an hour trying to get to a school that's 15 or 20 miles away, depending on the time and place. I usually plan on about 2 hour travel time for our Friday night games.

[HLin NC]

We went from $60 to $70 last season for regular varsity, no travel pay. $80 in the playoffs. ECO gets a full game check in the playoffs and is a "swweet ride"

$75 seems pretty close to average.

[NewGuy]

I thought the pay in ID was bad ($50 for varsity game), but I just found out OR (where I will soon be moving to) is even lower ($43-48 for varsity).

[bisonlj]

Most of our varsity games in Indiana are $60 but they range from $55 to $70. The pay is up to each school. Playoffs have mandated pay starting with $50 for round 1 and increasing as you go through the playoffs. The school is also required to pay mileage for each official so the farther away your game the better your pay.

Youth games are usually $25-$30 working up to $45-$50 for JV games. Many schools are moving to Saturday mornings rather than Monday/Thursday nights for Freshman/JV games which makes it harder to find officials since many are working youth games on Saturday. Do I work 3-youth games at $30 each in 3 hours ($90 total) or 1 JV game that may last 2 hours for $45?

[Bob M.]

Originally Posted by The Roamin' Umpire

Of course, in Jersey, there really isn't a reason to pay travel. Our section of NY is bigger than half the state of NJ. (Then again, we have less traffic most of the time.)

REPLY: Most of my games amount to an 80-90 mile round trip. With no travel paid and an 2007 IRS mileage allowance of 48.5 cents/mile, a travel deduction of ~ $40 for each game on my taxes helps offset the income received from the game fee. And when you bundle in the expenses for clinics, travel to meetings, tolls, etc...

[The Roamin' Umpire]

Originally Posted by Bob M.

REPLY: Most of my games amount to an 80-90 mile round trip. With no travel paid and an 2007 IRS mileage allowance of 48.5 cents/mile, a travel deduction of ~ $40 for each game on my taxes helps offset the income received from the game fee. And when you bundle in the expenses for clinics, travel to meetings, tolls, etc...

Wow - I'm kinda surprised. Then again, I forget that not all of Jersey is like the Shore Conference area. I'm from Toms River - three high schools in the same town! 40 miles one-way would get you to well over 50 different high schools.

[Bob M.]

REPLY: R-U...I live in west central Jersey in Hunterdon County. Almost all of my games are up in Bergen, Hudson, Morris, and Essex counties. So the travel is a drag. Does Toms River still have three high schools? That always astounded me. And they were three big schools, right?

Speaking of Toms River, I always play at Bea Ley golf course once each season in an outing.

[SWFLguy]

FHSAA "maximum" pay for a varsity games was $60 last season.
I'm not sure what it will be for fall 2007. I was making that in central NY
almost 10 years ago. Official's fees in CNY were based on starting teacher's
salaries. I'm not sure of any basis for the fees here in Florida.
All sports official's fees need to be increased dramatically if we are ever
to replace the current ones as they retire. The days of people doing this
for fun are long gone. To get new officials, the schools are going to have to up the ante.
Just sayin'

[The Roamin' Umpire]

Originally Posted by Bob M.

REPLY: R-U...I live in west central Jersey in Hunterdon County. Almost all of my games are up in Bergen, Hudson, Morris, and Essex counties. So the travel is a drag. Does Toms River still have three high schools? That always astounded me. And they were three big schools, right?

Oh yes - when I graduated from North in '94, it had something like 1500-1600 students and was the middle of the three; South had around 1200 and East had 1800 or so. At the time, Toms River was the second-largest district in the state (behind Newark) with two jam-packed intermediate schools and ten elementary schools.

Nowadays, it's the largest district. There are twelve elementary schools, they've finally built a third intermediate school, and at least my old high school has had a major expansion, so that now it houses about 2400 students. But then, this isn't terribly suprising from the state with the largest population density in the country.