Dear Eric,
In my career i've meet many people that tryed to become a diving instructor.
We, instructors don't do it because yhe money, we do it because is our passion.
So many of this people quit, others last 1 or 2 years and very little stay forever.
I will go into detail about the salaries but i believe is important that you allso understand that in many places your job as an instructor means long journeys, a lot of loading and phisical work and of course a lot of responsability,stress, some pressure on sales etc... is not as fantastic as many people dream of, but is still fantastic for those who love diving.
Aswell i would like to tell you that in this business languages are a must. The more you speak the more jobs you get.
I've been working on several places of this world , Asia, America, and Europe. In each continent the work of a dive instructor is completelly differentbthan in the others. Aswell the salaries.
In Asia salaries are usually lower. Many times u are gonna work comission based. A good point is that life is very cheap. So except Thailand, where in high season i was reaching 2000 euros comission based , the average salary i got in the rest of the countries was around 800 dolars. But, many places offered on top of that lodging and food.
An exception is Maledives, there the salary is around 1500 to 2000 dolars if you are lucky. The good thing of maldives is that you get everything payed on top of your salary. So is mostly savings. The bad point. You live in a 500m long island wich is a resort with many, believe me, many restrictions for empoyees.
In Europe the salaries go around 1000 to 1200 euros... once i got 1500. Most of the places are seasonal so you will get a job for around 6 months. Some offer lodging and/or food, some other don't. Most of the places you'll work 10 to 12 hours dayly 7 days a week. But is my favorite.
In America the salaries are around 1000 to 1500 dollars. But when you have US customers you can add around 300 average on top as tips. Some places like Cozumel can go up to 600 a month tips.
Think aswell that for being instructor every year you will have to pay fees to PADI or SSI (i recomme d you PADI i could answer why in anoher post) wich are around 250 dollars plus your insurance woch is allso every year 200 dollars more.
And of course you'll nedd your own diving gear.
This is my experience. And this is a short explanation because going into detail would take too long. If you have any more questions i will be happy to answer them.
I wish this information was usefull for you.
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