A freelancer earns higher day rates but takes on the periods without work, training, insurance and admin. Being on payroll offers continuity, paid training and social protection in exchange for lower daily pay and less control over your calendar. The right choice depends on your career stage and your tolerance for risk.
It's one of the decisions that shapes a commercial diver's life the most, and one of the ones made with the least thought. The usual pattern is ending up on one side or the other depending on how the first job came along, not through a considered choice. It's worth looking at calmly, because both options are reasonable and suit different profiles.
The two models, without romanticising either
Freelance. You work by campaign, usually through contractors or agencies, with a day rate agreed for each job. Between campaigns you don't get paid. You handle your own training, medical certificates, insurance, tax and job hunting.
Plantilla. You're on a contractor's payroll. You get paid every month, whether you're working on a project or ashore waiting for the next one. The company usually pays for training, renewals and equipment, and covers you under its insurance. In exchange, pay per day actually worked is lower and you have less control over where and when you're sent.
The mistake of comparing day rates
The comparison almost everyone makes — "a freelancer earns more per day" — is true, and it's misleading. To compare properly you need to weigh up four things together.
Days actually worked per year. This is the factor that weighs the most. A freelancer who strings campaigns together can have an excellent year; one who spends four months idle can end up earning less than a colleague on payroll. The variability is huge and depends on the sector's cycle, your network of contacts, and luck.
Costs you take on. Periodic recertifications, medicals, survival training, insurance specifically for commercial diving, personal equipment, travel, an accountant. Added up over a year, it isn't a small figure. The guide on recertification and ongoing training gives an idea of the scale.
Protection when something goes wrong. An injury that keeps you out for six months has very different consequences depending on the model. It's the point that gets underestimated the most when you're thirty and feel indestructible, and the one that weighs the most later. See chronic injuries and a diver's working life.
What builds up over time. Pension, seniority, access to internal promotion. A freelancer has to build all of that themselves, deliberately, because nobody does it for them.
What the freelancer gains
Rate. More per day worked.
Control over your calendar. You can say no to a campaign, take three months off, and plan your life around your own priorities rather than a company's.
Variety and faster learning. Working with different contractors exposes you to different ways of doing things and builds judgement faster.
Red amplia. A freelancer with years under their belt knows a lot of people at a lot of companies, and that's real professional capital.
A higher ceiling. A rare, well-positioned profile can reach an income that a payroll job would struggle to match.
What being on payroll gains you
Predictability. Knowing exactly what comes in every month completely changes your relationship with the work. It makes mortgages, family plans and long-term decisions possible.
Paid training. It's a bigger advantage than it looks. The certifications that open doors are expensive; having the company pay for them speeds up a career a lot.
Structured progression. Inside a company there's a visible path towards supervisor, life support technician, coordination or training roles. A freelancer can get there too, but has to build the route themselves. See from diver to supervisor.
Backup when there's a problem. An accident, sick leave or a conflict on a project is faced very differently with a company behind you.
Belonging to a team. Always working with the same people builds operational trust, and in this trade trust is also safety.
What suits each stage of a career
Starting out. Stability almost always pays off. What a new diver needs is hours, guidance from experienced people, and certifications, not a high rate. A payroll position or an ongoing relationship with a contractor gives you all three. See how to get your first job.
The mid-career stage. With solid certifications, logged hours and a network of contacts, freelancing starts to make sense. This is when your profile is scarce and you can pick and choose, and when the rate premium makes up for the risk.
Later on. Many people go back to a stable position, often no longer as a diver but as a supervisor, inspector or trainer. The body sets limits, and predictability gains value. We cover it in what to do after commercial diving.
Si eliges freelance, hazlo bien
Being self-employed in this trade works if you run it like a business, not as a string of one-off jobs.
Keep a cushion that covers several months with no income: slow periods happen, and they happen without warning. Take out insurance that specifically covers commercial diving, because many general policies exclude it. Budget for training and renewals every year as a fixed cost. Diversify your clients: depending on a single contractor gives you all the downsides of a job with none of the upsides. And take an active role in your own retirement planning, because nobody else is going to do it for you.
It isn't an irreversible decision
It's worth taking the drama out of this. People switch between models often, in both directions, and many of the sector's strongest careers combine both stages. What is worth doing is making the decision with the numbers in front of you and revisiting it every so often, rather than staying wherever you happened to land.
The useful question isn't which one pays more, but which one fits your stage in life, your tolerance for risk, and the professional profile you're building.
The calculation worth doing before deciding
A practical way to compare is to reduce both options to an estimated net annual income and put it next to an honest assessment of the risk.
For the freelancer: day rate multiplied by an estimate conservadora of days worked — not your best year, a normal one — minus annual training and recertifications, minus insurance, minus social security contributions or the equivalent, minus uncovered travel, minus accountancy fees.
For payroll: gross annual pay, plus the value of what the company covers — training, medicals, equipment, insurance — which adds up to considerably more than people tend to reckon.
When you do this exercise with real numbers, the gap is usually much smaller than the day-rate comparison suggests. And in slow years for the sector, it often flips the other way.
After that you have to add what can't go in a spreadsheet: how much you value being able to say no to a campaign, how much the uncertainty weighs on you, and what would happen if you couldn't dive for six months starting tomorrow.
A middle-ground model that works
There's a third way a lot of people practise without giving it a name: being freelance but with a preferred, stable relationship with one or two contractors. Formally you're self-employed and charging the market rate, but in practice you have continuity because they call you before anyone else.
It's built in a specific way: delivering, being easy to work with, giving advance notice of your availability and not leaving anyone stranded halfway through a project. It's slow, it can't be forced, and it's what separates freelancers who live well from those who live on tenterhooks.
It carries a risk worth watching: if the preferred relationship turns into dependence on a single client, you get the self-employed person's insecurity without the diversification that's supposed to justify it. The practical rule is not to let a single contractor account for all your billing for very long.
Questions worth asking yourself every year
How many days did I actually work, and how does that compare with what I planned for? What new certification did I add? How much have I set aside for a long layoff or an injury? Do I still have more than one client? Is my profile harder to replace today than it was a year ago?
Answering that honestly once a year does more for a diver's career than any one-off negotiation, and it works the same way under both models. The guide on how to negotiate your day rate complements this from the income side.
Frequently asked questions
Do you earn more self-employed?
Per day, almost always yes. Per year, it depends on how many days you work. A freelancer with many idle months can end up earning less than a colleague on payroll with the same profile.
What costs does a freelance diver take on?
Training and recertifications, medical clearance, their own insurance, social security contributions or the equivalent, personal equipment, uncovered travel, and the periods with no income between campaigns.
Does being on payroll give more job security?
It gives more continuity and social protection, but not immunity: when the sector's cycle turns down, there are layoffs too. Real security comes from having a profile that's in demand, not from the type of contract.
What's the right choice when starting out?
In general, payroll or a stable relationship with a contractor. Early on, hours, guidance from experienced people and paid training matter more than maximising your day rate.
Can you combine both?
Yes. Many professionals alternate between stages: payroll while building up certifications and experience, freelance once their profile is scarce and in demand, and back to a stable position later on.
Published 3 September 2026 · By Arthur More, professional saturation diver
Photo: Infrogmation · CC BY via Openverse