How Much Is the Maintenance Rate for an Injured Seaman?

When a seaman is hurt at sea, the employer owes a daily living allowance called maintenance until the seaman recovers. The amount sounds simple, but employers routinely pay far less than the law requires. Here is how the maintenance rate is actually set, and how to challenge a lowball figure.

This article is for informational purposes only and does not constitute legal advice. Maintenance rates turn on your actual expenses, your contract, and the law of your circuit; to find out what you are owed, consult a licensed maritime attorney.

Key Facts at a Glance

• Maintenance is a daily allowance for an injured seaman’s food and lodging ashore; cure is the payment of medical expenses (Source: Cornell LII).
• There is no statutory daily maintenance rate; it is based on the seaman’s reasonable cost of food and lodging.
• A court estimates the seaman’s actual food and lodging costs and the reasonable cost for a single seaman in the locality, Hall v. Noble Drilling (U.S.) Inc., 242 F.3d 582 (5th Cir. 2001) (Source: Justia).
• Employers frequently pay an arbitrary rate of roughly 30 to 40 dollars per day, which is often far below actual living costs.
• A collective bargaining agreement can fix the maintenance rate, and many courts enforce that rate even when it is low.
• An employer’s callous refusal to pay maintenance and cure can support attorney’s fees, Vaughan v. Atkinson, 369 U.S. 527 (1962) (Source: Justia).
• A willful and wanton failure to pay can support punitive damages, Atlantic Sounding Co. v. Townsend, 557 U.S. 404 (2009) (Source: Justia).

Maintenance and cure is one of the oldest duties in maritime law. The moment a seaman is injured or falls ill in the service of a vessel, the employer must pay maintenance, a daily sum for living expenses ashore, and cure, the cost of medical treatment, regardless of who was at fault. The duty is broad and ambiguities are resolved in the seaman’s favor. Yet the part that injured seamen most often get shortchanged on is the maintenance rate, because employers tend to pay a flat, low daily figure that bears no relation to what it actually costs to live.

This guide explains how the maintenance rate works: what maintenance covers, the going rates and why they are often too low, how courts calculate a proper rate, when a union contract controls, how long payments last, and what happens when an employer underpays or cuts a seaman off. The goal is a clear answer to a question employers prefer to keep murky, including a worked calculation you can follow.

What Is Maintenance, and How Is It Different From Cure?

Maintenance and cure are two related but distinct duties. Maintenance is a daily living allowance meant to cover the food and lodging the injured seaman would otherwise have received aboard the vessel, paid while the seaman recovers ashore. Cure is the employer’s separate obligation to pay for reasonable and necessary medical treatment until the seaman reaches maximum medical improvement. Both are owed without regard to fault, which sets them apart from a Jones Act negligence claim, and both flow from the seaman’s status rather than from any wrongdoing by the employer. Our maintenance and cure overview covers the full doctrine; this article focuses on the dollar figure behind maintenance, which is where disputes most often arise.

How Much Is the Maintenance Rate per Day?

There is no set daily maintenance rate, but in practice employers commonly pay a flat figure of roughly 30 to 40 dollars a day, and historically rates as low as 8 dollars persisted for decades. That figure is supposed to represent the reasonable cost of food and lodging for the injured seaman ashore, comparable to what the vessel provided. The problem is obvious: a flat 30 dollars a day, about 900 dollars a month, does not cover rent, utilities, and food in most of the United States. Many employers treat the low rate as a default and hope the seaman accepts it. It is not binding unless a valid contract sets it, and a seaman who documents actual expenses can often obtain a substantially higher rate from a court. The rate is meant to track real living costs, not the employer’s convenience.

How Do Courts Calculate the Maintenance Rate?

Courts calculate maintenance by looking at the seaman’s real expenses against reasonable local costs. The leading articulation comes from Hall v. Noble Drilling (U.S.) Inc., 242 F.3d 582 (5th Cir. 2001), which directs a court to estimate both the seaman’s actual food and lodging costs and the reasonable cost of food and lodging for a single seaman in the locality, then award the lower of the two, unless the actual costs are inadequate to provide reasonable food and lodging (Source: Justia). Courts may consider the seaman’s actual costs, evidence of reasonable costs in the region, union contract rates, and maintenance rates ordered in other cases for seamen in the same area, and a court may take judicial notice of the prevailing local rate. The practical lesson is that documentation drives the number: the seaman who proves real expenses controls the analysis.

Worked example: A seaman pays 1,500 dollars a month in rent and utilities plus about 450 dollars a month for food, totaling roughly 1,950 dollars, or about 65 dollars a day. His employer is paying 35 dollars a day. If he documents the rent, utility bills, and food costs and shows they are reasonable for his locality, a court can raise his maintenance to reflect those proven expenses rather than the employer’s flat rate.

Does a Union Contract Set the Maintenance Rate?

Often, yes. When a seaman is covered by a collective bargaining agreement that specifies a maintenance rate, many courts enforce that negotiated rate even if it is lower than the seaman’s actual expenses, on the theory that the union bargained for the whole package. This is one of the most important variables in any maintenance dispute, and the circuits do not all treat it the same way, so the same contract rate can be binding in one jurisdiction and merely a factor in another. A non-union employment contract or a rate buried in hiring paperwork is generally given less weight, and a seaman should not assume that a number on a form he signed is the final word. Whether a union rate controls is a question to raise with a maritime attorney familiar with the governing circuit.

What Does Maintenance Cover, and What Does It Not?

Maintenance covers the seaman’s own basic cost of living ashore, and nothing more. Covered items generally include rent or the interest portion of a mortgage, utilities such as electricity, gas, and water, property taxes and homeowner’s insurance where applicable, and food. It does not cover expenses that are not food and lodging: car payments, fuel, phone and internet, entertainment, credit card debt, or the living expenses of the seaman’s spouse and children. Because maintenance is limited to the injured seaman’s share, a worker who lives with family can only claim the portion of household costs attributable to himself. The way to maximize a legitimate maintenance claim is to gather receipts and statements for the covered categories and present them, rather than accepting a round-number rate the employer offers.

The principle behind the table is that maintenance restores the food and lodging the vessel would have provided to the seaman, not a general income substitute, so only the worker’s own basic living costs qualify.

How Long Do Maintenance Payments Last?

Maintenance and cure continue until the seaman reaches maximum medical improvement, the point at which a physician determines the condition will not get materially better with further treatment. Reaching maximum medical improvement does not mean the seaman has fully recovered; a worker can be permanently disabled and unable to return to sea, yet still hit the point where further treatment will not help, and at that point the duty to pay maintenance and cure ends. This is why the medical timeline drives the obligation, and why employers sometimes push a premature maximum-medical-improvement finding through a company-selected doctor to cut off payments early. A seaman who disputes a premature cutoff can present contrary medical evidence, because the employer cannot simply declare recovery to end its obligation.

What Happens If the Employer Pays Too Little or Stops Paying?

Underpaying or wrongfully stopping maintenance carries real consequences for the employer. If an employer pays an inadequate rate, the seaman can sue for the unpaid difference and prove the correct amount with expense evidence. If the failure to pay is unreasonable, the employer becomes liable for any aggravation of the injury that resulted, plus the seaman’s attorney’s fees under Vaughan v. Atkinson, 369 U.S. 527 (1962) (Source: Justia). And if the refusal is willful and wanton, the seaman can recover punitive damages under Atlantic Sounding Co. v. Townsend, 557 U.S. 404 (2009) (Source: Justia). Those escalating penalties are why a documented, persistent refusal to pay can ultimately cost an employer far more than the maintenance itself; see our guide to maritime punitive damages.

Worked example: An employer cuts off a seaman’s maintenance the week he declines a low settlement, with no medical basis. The seaman keeps the dated letters and emails. If a court finds the cutoff arbitrary, the employer may owe the unpaid maintenance, the medical setback the cutoff caused, attorney’s fees under Vaughan, and punitive damages under Townsend, all from one refusal.

Can an Employer Deny Maintenance and Cure?

There are limited defenses, and employers often stretch them. The most common is the McCorpen defense, from McCorpen v. Central Gulf Steamship Corp., 396 F.2d 547 (5th Cir. 1968), which bars maintenance and cure when a seaman intentionally concealed a material pre-existing medical condition on a pre-hire medical questionnaire that was later connected to the injury (Source: Justia). Employers also raise willful misconduct, intoxication, or that the injury did not occur in the service of the vessel. But a pre-existing condition by itself is not a bar; if shipboard work aggravated it, maintenance and cure are still owed, and ambiguities are resolved in the seaman’s favor under Vaughan. Employers frequently invoke these defenses improperly to justify paying nothing, which is why a denial should be reviewed rather than accepted.

How Can a Seaman Maximize the Maintenance Rate?

Maximizing maintenance is mostly about evidence and timing. Keep every record of monthly living costs: lease or mortgage statements, utility bills, property tax and insurance records, and a realistic accounting of food costs, then total the covered categories and divide by 30 to derive a daily figure grounded in reality rather than the employer’s default. Do not assume a low rate on a hiring form or an early letter is binding, and do not accept a premature maximum-medical-improvement determination from a company doctor without independent medical input. Report the injury in writing, save every communication about benefits, and get a maritime attorney involved early, because the same documentation that raises the maintenance rate also builds the record for attorney’s fees or punitive damages if the employer refuses to pay what is owed.

Key Authorities on Maintenance and Cure Rates

Frequently Asked Questions

How much is the maintenance rate per day?

There is no fixed daily maintenance rate. Employers commonly pay 30 to 40 dollars a day, but maintenance is supposed to cover the seaman’s reasonable cost of food and lodging ashore, which is often higher. A seaman who documents actual expenses can frequently obtain a larger amount from a court.

How is the maintenance rate calculated?

Under Hall v. Noble Drilling, a court estimates both the seaman’s actual food and lodging costs and the reasonable cost for a single seaman in the locality, and awards the lower of the two unless the actual costs are inadequate for reasonable food and lodging. Courts may also consider regional rates, union contracts, and rates set in other cases.

What does maintenance cover?

Maintenance covers the injured seaman’s own food and lodging ashore, including rent or mortgage interest, utilities, property taxes and insurance where applicable, and food. It does not cover car payments, fuel, phone, entertainment, debt, or the expenses of family members.

Does a union contract control the maintenance rate?

Often yes. Many courts enforce a maintenance rate fixed in a collective bargaining agreement even if it is lower than the seaman’s actual expenses, though circuits treat this differently. A non-union employment contract rate is generally given less weight. Whether a union rate binds you depends on your governing court.

How long does maintenance last?

Maintenance continues until the seaman reaches maximum medical improvement, the point at which further treatment will not materially improve the condition. That can be the point of full recovery or the point at which a permanent disability stabilizes. Once a seaman reaches maximum medical improvement, the duty to pay maintenance and cure ends.

What can I do if my employer pays too little maintenance?

You can document your actual living costs and sue for the unpaid difference. If the underpayment or refusal is unreasonable, the employer may also owe your attorney’s fees under Vaughan v. Atkinson, and a willful refusal can support punitive damages under Atlantic Sounding Co. v. Townsend. Have your rate reviewed before accepting a low figure.

Can an employer refuse to pay maintenance and cure?

Only in limited circumstances, such as intentional concealment of a material pre-existing condition under the McCorpen defense, willful misconduct, or an injury not in the service of the vessel. A pre-existing condition alone is not a bar if the work aggravated it, and doubts are resolved in the seaman’s favor, so a denial should be reviewed by an attorney.

References and Sources

1. Maintenance and cure, Cornell Legal Information Institute (Wex)
2. Vaughan v. Atkinson, 369 U.S. 527 (1962), Justia
3. Atlantic Sounding Co. v. Townsend, 557 U.S. 404 (2009), Justia
4. Hall v. Noble Drilling (U.S.) Inc., 242 F.3d 582 (5th Cir. 2001), Justia
5. McCorpen v. Central Gulf Steamship Corp., 396 F.2d 547 (5th Cir. 1968), Justia
6. Jones Act, 46 U.S.C. § 30104, Cornell LII
7. Offshore Injury Help, maintenance and cure overview

Editorial Standards and Review

This article follows a zero-hallucination policy. Every legal rule and case holding is traced to a primary or authoritative source linked inline and listed above; Supreme Court holdings are cited to the official reporter and verified against Justia, and the rate-setting framework is cited to the controlling federal decision. Common daily-rate figures are described as typical employer practice, not as a legal entitlement. We are not a law firm and not attorneys, and nothing here is legal advice. The maintenance rate owed in any case depends on the seaman’s actual expenses, the governing contract, and the law of the circuit, so an injured seaman should have the specific facts reviewed by a licensed maritime attorney. Last reviewed June 2026. See our editorial standards.