Current:Home > BackWhat is the average NFL referee salary? Here's how much professional football refs make.-DB Wealth Institute B2 Expert Reviews
What is the average NFL referee salary? Here's how much professional football refs make.
View Date:2024-12-24 07:07:13
It's well known that the National Football League's star athletes make tens of millions of dollars a year. NFL referee salaries, on the other hand, are more elusive. Certainly, they earn considerably less than the players, despite the tremendous amount of pressure they're under to make game-deciding calls that could influence the outcome of the 2024 Super Bowl.
Referee pay is governed by a collective bargaining agreement between the NFL Referees Association (NFLRA) — the union that represents them — and the NFL.
The latest contract, signed by both parties in September 2019, is effective through May 2026, but is not publicly available.
Previous agreements between the union and the league, however, provide a sense of how much the officials charged with adjudicating and enforcing the rules of the game earn for their work.
Not surprisingly, it pales in comparison to the players with whom they share the field.
How much do NFL referees make?
How much does an NFL referee make? In 2019, under the agreement that was to expire in May 2020, game officials earned an average salary of $205,000, according to a post on the latest NFL referee salary agreement from Football Zebras, a site focused on football referees. In 2011, under the preceding contract, officials earned $149,000, on average. That means they received a nearly 38% bump in pay from one contract to the next.
NFL referees typically officiate 19 games per season, including preseason matchups and clinics.
Do NFL referees get paid more money for the Super Bowl?
A Super Bowl referee's pay is supplementary to a regular season NFL football referee salary. Refs assigned to playoff games and the Super Bowl "are paid from a separate pool" on top of their regular salaries, according to the site.
NFLRA executive director Scott Green did not immediately respond to CBS MoneyWatch's request for comment on the current contract between the union and the NFL.
The NFL also did not respond to CBS MoneyWatch's request for comment on referee pay.
To be an NFL game official, candidates must have at least 10 years' experience officiating football games, according to the league's website. That should include at least five years refereeing "major college games."
The NFL runs a referee development program, called the Mackie Development Program, that provides a pathway for college football refs to step up to the national league.
Program participants attend training camps, officiate NFL preseason games and, upon completion, move up to the NFL if they are deemed fit to officiate at the highest level of the sport.
More than 120 officials in black-and-white shirts are currently working as referees, umpires or judges in the NFL.
- In:
- Super Bowl LVIII
- Super Bowl
Megan Cerullo is a New York-based reporter for CBS MoneyWatch covering small business, workplace, health care, consumer spending and personal finance topics. She regularly appears on CBS News Streaming to discuss her reporting.
veryGood! (6)
Related
- Mississippi man charged with shooting 5 people after not being allowed into party
- UN Report: Despite Falling Energy Demand, Governments Set on Increasing Fossil Fuel Production
- Florida Power CEO implicated in scandals abruptly steps down
- America, we have a problem. People aren't feeling engaged with their work
- NFL Week 10 winners, losers: Cowboys' season can no longer be saved
- Taylor Swift and Gigi Hadid Prove Their Friendship Never Goes Out of Style in NYC
- Global Climate Panel’s Report: No Part of the Planet Will be Spared
- Northern lights will be visible in fewer states than originally forecast. Will you still be able to see them?
- Kentucky gets early signature win at Champions Classic against Duke | Opinion
- Maryland Thought Deregulating Utilities Would Lower Rates. It’s Cost the State’s Residents Hundreds of Millions of Dollars.
Ranking
- The charming Russian scene-stealers of 'Anora' are also real-life best friends
- Inside Clean Energy: 6 Things Michael Moore’s ‘Planet of the Humans’ Gets Wrong
- Looking for Amazon alternatives for ethical shopping? Here are some ideas
- A ‘Polluter Pays’ Tax in Infrastructure Plan Could Jump-Start Languishing Cleanups at Superfund Sites
- Bankruptcy judge questioned Shilo Sanders' no-show at previous trial
- Jan. 6 defendant accused of carrying firearms into Obama's D.C. neighborhood to be jailed pending trial
- Kaley Cuoco's Ex-Husband Karl Cook Engaged Nearly 2 Years After Their Breakup
- U.S. files second antitrust suit against Google's ad empire, seeks to break it up
Recommendation
-
The Surreal Life’s Kim Zolciak Fuels Dating Rumors With Costar Chet Hanks After Kroy Biermann Split
-
A 20-year-old soldier from Boston went missing in action during World War II. 8 decades later, his remains have been identified.
-
Inside Clean Energy: With a Pen Stroke, New Law Launches Virginia Into Landmark Clean Energy Transition
-
The EPA Is Asking a Virgin Islands Refinery for Information on its Spattering of Neighbors With Oil
-
A growing and aging population is forcing Texas counties to seek state EMS funding
-
To all the econ papers I've loved before
-
Tom Cruise's stunts in Mission: Impossible — Dead Reckoning Part One presented new challenges, director says
-
Biden's offshore wind plan could create thousands of jobs, but challenges remain