| As a current student at a commercial diving school, I had many questions concerning pay for divers. Here's what I've found:
1) Expect to be hired on as a "tender" at first, one who stays topside and "tends" the diver below; i.e. sends him tools, makes sure his hoses don't tangle, communicate orders to him from superiors. The average transistion time from a tender to full fledged diver is anywhere from 1 to 2 years, depending on skill and aptitude.
2) Tenders are generally hired on at about $15 per hour (for offshore work in the Gulf of Mexico). Inland rates are typically less. Expect to work a minimum of 84 hours per week (yes, that's 44 hours of overtime) with an average of 4-6 weeks offshore with 1 week off.
3) Once you "break-out" as a diver, you can expect to make $20-$27 per hour, with the same amount of overtime hours, plus an added bonus of "depth pay"; which is paid on a graduating scale depending on how deep you go on a dive. Dives can range from 10fsw (feet of sea water) to 250fsw. The average depth pay is $1 per foot for 1-100 feet, with 50 cent graduations every 50 feet beyond 100. So, a 200fsw dive will bring in $275.
4) The pay is very attractive, but it should be noted that only about 3% of commercial diving school graduates actually stay in the field for more than one year. This is due to harsh working conditions, extreme hours, very hard work, and dealing with superiors who are rough, foul-mouthed, and aggressive in order to weed out the people who cannot handle the responsibilities of the job (you are, after all, directly responsible for the diver on the other end of that hose.) To help put this point into perspective, I'm in a class with 30 potential divers. The school starts a class once a month, so it's reasonable to suggest that after one year, 360 new divers will enter the workforce. Statistics show that one year after they all begin, only 11 will still be working in the industry. Not a great retention rate, by any standards.
I hope this helps!
Sidnal | 
Linear Mode
