Results of the 2025 Bunker Trader Salary Survey

January 21, 2026

As in many industries, for bunker traders salaries can be a decisive factor in determining whether they feel good about their current position or become motivated to look for a new role.

As in previous years, Ship & Bunker has worked with recruitment specialists Imperium Commodity Search to gather data on the current state of the global salary landscape for bunker traders.

The following information has been compiled from a combination of a salary survey with data from actual industry placings made by Imperium. All salary and bonus figures have been converted into US dollars at conversion rates from January 2026.

How Much Do Bunker Traders Get Paid?

The following shows the global average bunker trader salary range in USD for various experience levels.

As might be expected, the least experienced personnel attract the lowest average salaries, and those rise according to the level of experience.

Average salaries jumped by 13.3% on the year to $119,042 in 2025, up from $105,022 the previous year.

Salary Changes by Region

Breaking down the data by region shows significant differences in average salary changes over the past year.

The following chart shows basic compensation in USD across the various regions, comparing 2025 to 2024.

It should be noted that the change in average salaries will not necessarily reflect the change any individual trader will have seen in their pay over the past year; an increase in more junior staff being hired in a particular region as business there expands will result in a drop in average salaries, while most individuals in that region are likely to have seen an increase in their own pay package.

"APAC, North America and Europe have seen compensation increases and the Middle East continues to shrink," Imperium CEO Jonathan Margrave told Ship & Bunker.

"As the proliferation of new Dubai firms has shrunk and existing ones struggled, the rest of the world has adjusted to compete and overtake their previous growth."

What Bonuses Do Bunker Traders Receive?

Salaries are not the only element of compensation in bunker traders' pay packages; bonuses also play an important role.

How these bonuses are formulated varies significantly across the industry. The following chart shows the proportion of traders reporting different types of bonus scheme:

But the frequency of these payments is much less varied, with the vast majority of those receiving a bonus seeing it as a single annual payment, as the following chart with the share of responses reporting each type of bonus schedule shows:

The data show average bonus payments in 2025 dropped significantly compared to the previous year. The next chart compares the unweighted global average of bonus payouts in 2025 to 2024:

Unlike with average salaries, this figure may also reflect what individuals have seen in their own pay packages, with more reporting a lower bonus in 2025 than reporting an increase:

"8% of all respondents said that they didn't get any bonus whatsoever in the last 12 months, an increase from 3% the previous year," Margrave said.

Total Compensation

The combination of rising salaries and falling bonuses left total compensation up only slightly on the year on average.

This chart compares average base salaries, bonuses and the combination of both on a global basis in 2025 and 2024:

Average total compensation reached $160,322 in 2025, up by 3.5% from the $154,887 average calculated in 2024.

Bonuses made up 25.7% of average total compensation in 2025, down from 32.2% the previous year.

What Do Bunker Traders Think of Their Employers?

While it might be thought that a survey of this kind would be weighted towards those participating because they are unhappy in their current role, an increased majority of respondents this year expressed positive views about their employer.

As the chart above shows, a total of 66% of respondents said they would either recommend or strongly recommend their employer to others in the industry for employment or a business opportunity, compared to 58% in 2024's survey. Just 4% said they would either not recommend or strongly recommend their firm, down from 7% last year, with the remainder saying they were agnostic on the issue.