Navy officials are changing the career sea pay rules for sailors in expeditionary and small craft units, as well as afloat staffs that aren’t on ships full-time.

Sailors only earn CSP while on certain types of sea duty — mostly onboard ships — and the monthly payout is based on a combination of the sailor’s pay grade and cumulative years of sea duty.

Depending on the command, sailors may qualify for continuous CSP for the entire duration of a tour at sea. This means that regardless of being at sea or in port, sailors get the pay continuously while assigned to a ship. In addition, cumulative sea time also grows for every month spent onboard.

Others qualify only for daily CSP, meaning these sailors only qualify for the pay and have their cumulative sea time grow a day at a time — only when they’re actually underway or meet other qualifying conditions.

The daily rate of pay is calculated as three percent of the monthly rate of an individual paygrade. Cumulative sea time only increases one day at a time as well.

By law, monthly CSP can't exceed $750 — few sailors actually earn that much.

Currently, an E-6 with more than 18 years of sea time will net the monthly maximum of $750, while E-7s through E-9 only need 13 years of cumulative sea time to rate the monthly max. That amount translates to an extra $25 per day.

NavAdmin 143/18 updates the rules on receiving the pay, as well as the ship and craft types that qualify for each type of pay.

Sailors assigned to units operating the Navy’s landing craft, coastal riverine and special warfare boat units, for example, can now qualify while serving on their own boats or when their boats are embarked on larger vessels.

The message lists 15 different types of craft and vessels where sailors assigned can qualify for the daily rate.

Coastal riverine and special warfare boat crews qualify while their craft is either at sea or in a port more than 50 miles from their homeport, and when the ship is underway at least six hours a day.

For those assigned to landing craft units, the rules are the same as the riverine and special boat sailors, but in addition, these sailors can also qualify if they’re embarked on an amphibious class of ship for training or deployment.

As for afloat staffs, just two staffs still qualify for the continuous pay while assigned. T hose are the Japan-based Seventh Fleet staff and Carrier Strike Group 5. The reason these staffs qualify, the message says, they don’t have permanent offices ashore.

Career sea pay has been around since the 1980s and was last updated in 2014.

For more details, read NavAdmin 143/18.

About Mark D. Faram

Mark D. Faram is a former reporter for Navy Times. He was a senior writer covering personnel, cultural and historical issues. A nine-year active duty Navy veteran, Faram served from 1978 to 1987 as a Navy Diver and photographer.

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