StarDestroyer.Net BBS

Has wondered lately how much the average Imperial captain earns every time he gets his paycheck???
Any figures stated somewhere?

U.S. Navy captains get 4728 a month, assuming 10 years in.

You might be able to use that as a baseline.

Well, IIRC the Imperial Navy rank structure goes thusly:
...and so forth, with no ranks between Captain and Admiral.

So I imagine they're pretty fairly high up the pay scale. I could be off, of course...

I must mention the rank of Vice admirial was mentioned in the opening movie of Tie Fighter. So ther is at least one rank between captian and Admirial

Enforcer Talen wrote:U.S. Navy captains get 4728 a month, assuming 10 years in.

You might be able to use that as a baseline.

That figure helped a little.

17000 is enough to buy a ship with a hyperdrive I assume Skywalker was refering to. I bet it would take an Imperial starship captian several moths at least to gather enough money to buy his own little private ship.

Enforcer Talen wrote:U.S. Navy captains get 4728 a month, assuming 10 years in.

You might be able to use that as a baseline.

Wonderful, so what's the Dollar-Credit conversion rate?

Elheru Aran wrote:Well, IIRC the Imperial Navy rank structure goes thusly:

Code: Select all

Moff (civilian rank, but seems to have some authority over Imperial officers, ref: Tarkin)
Grand Admiral 
Admiral
Captain
Commander

...and so forth, with no ranks between Captain and Admiral.

So I imagine they're pretty fairly high up the pay scale. I could be off, of course...

Okey, but it does not help me in any way.

If I were you I might check "The Bacta War" even though its a Stackpole novel. There are a few references to one Imperial Captain's lifestyle (granted he's a post-Endor Captain but nevertheless...).

Straha wrote: Wonderful, so what's the Dollar-Credit conversion rate?

I've always thought it must be at least 2-1 considering that Luke's landspeeder, which I would say is probably about the equivelant of a thirty year old Camaro in decent repair, sold for under 2 grand and drink purchases always seem to be made with small denomination coins.

Okey, but it does not help me in any way.

Okey (sic) pal, but I don't see why anyone could...if some poor soul has actually bothered to specify the salary of an Imperial captain and to determine its equivalent in modern day currencies, I'd feel truely sorry for them.

The economic environment within Star Wars could only be described as incredibly complex, with primitive institutions such as slavery and criminal governments existing in the Outer Rim and financial infrastructure that puts Wall Street to shame in the Core Worlds. Describing the differences in interplanetary standards of living as "enormous" would be an understatement.

It's entirely conceivable that pricing for goods and services varies massively from planet to planet, due to the varying economic environments in different planets, and this could further complicate things. We can assume that shipping within the Star Wars galaxy is inexpensive given the speed and efficiency of hyperdrive, but we don't actually know how it is priced or what availibility is like on a per-destination basis. Also, it is entirely conceivable that less developed planets such as Tatooine tend to have infrastructural shortcomings and other disagreeable characteristics that further alter the economic equation.

I think the only truely relevant way to study this is to determine the actual standard of living enjoyed by Imperial officers in terms of how much they typically posess and what their lifestyles look like. Drawing up any kind of indifference curve, however, becomes difficult because we really don't know what a typical bundle would look like anywhere in the galaxy in terms of pricing. How much does it cost, per month, to live on Imperial Center, and how does that compare with the per month cost of living on Chandrilla, or Mandalore, or Bespin?

If anyone does have any insight into the actual lifestyle and standard of living enjoyed by Imperial officers, that would be interesting. The only thing I think we can agree on with any certainty, is that they probably make a heck of a lot more than their Rebel counterparts (though I suspect a large portion of Rebels come from well to do backgrounds).

Elheru Aran wrote:Well, IIRC the Imperial Navy rank structure goes thusly:

Code: Select all

Moff (civilian rank, but seems to have some authority over Imperial officers, ref: Tarkin)
Grand Admiral 
Admiral
Captain
Commander

...and so forth, with no ranks between Captain and Admiral.

So I imagine they're pretty fairly high up the pay scale. I could be off, of course...

How then do you explain Vice Admiral Thrawn (TIE Fighter), Rear Admiral (Retired) Michael Unther ("A World to Conquer"), and Commodore Zuggs (Rebellion)? To say nothing of the fact that the Imperial Sourcebook, Second Edition describes the rank of line captain as being superior to that of captain but inferior to commodore, thereby identifying at least four ranks between the rank of captain and the rank of admiral, and the ranks of fleet admiral and high admiral above that of admiral but below that of grand admiral. Your rank system is defective.

The only overt reference to a captain's salary is in Scoundrel's Luck, in which FADM Kendal Ozzel dismisses Han Solo's claim that CAPT Firmus Piett had solicited a bribe from him, saying that CAPT Piett is too well paid to have done such a thing.

Er. I'm not *that* well up on the EU, and I've never played TIE Fighter or Rebellion, plus I don't have the Imperial Sourcebook. Don't blame me, blame my lack of resources.

And Firmus Piett? That's some name there...

Elheru Aran wrote:Er. I'm not *that* well up on the EU, and I've never played TIE Fighter or Rebellion, plus I don't have the Imperial Sourcebook. Don't blame me, blame my lack of resources.

And Firmus Piett? That's some name there...

What are you, seven?

Dark Primus wrote:

Enforcer Talen wrote:U.S. Navy captains get 4728 a month, assuming 10 years in.

You might be able to use that as a baseline.

That figure helped a little.

17000 is enough to buy a ship with a hyperdrive I assume Skywalker was refering to. I bet it would take an Imperial starship captian several moths at least to gather enough money to buy his own little private ship.

Well what Luke says is this... "We can almost buy our own ship for that!"

I work for H-D and have done some, not much, but some sales work and usually when normal folk... not counting Oakland A's and Raiders say they can buy a Harley they usually are refering to the down and a monthly payment. Now I'm not even trying to say this is how it is in the SW universe, but it's how it is in our own uni. Most people don't pay full pop for large ticket items like cars and bikes. They finance. So I'm just sayin.

I would imagine that by Solo's response, that 17, 000, while a lot to Luke, is a very good price (for Han) for renting his ship, for what may be some dangerous transporting. I think the ship Luke could buy with 17,000 may be the SW equivalent of a Yugo.

Also, If Luke got his own ship, he would have to pay for its fuel....Are there any know sources that say what fuel costs in the SW universe per liter?

17000 is enough to buy a ship with a hyperdrive I assume Skywalker was refering to.

17,000 is Ben's total offer for the trip. Luke was responding to Han's initial demand of 10,000.

So the Star Wars equivalent of a Ford Escort is even cheaper apparently.

Luke Skywalker wrote:Ten thousand? We could almost buy our own ship for that!

Yeh, on the sbugect of buying a ship, considering in SW, an intersteller ship is much more like a Car, I would consider it's price about the same. Therefore if 10,000 will buy you a modest starship, I would assume this to be an upper middle-income sallery indicator.

My Father makes about 65,000 a year, and he's pretty well off, I would imagine an Imp Captain making about the same. The Empier after all wants to look after it's Officers.

Actually like RThurmont pointed out, we have no idea.

Saying well ten thousand could get a ship...look where Luke is from. A backend dead to the galaxy planet, and for it's worth, he's essentially a hick.

Publius gave us the only clue, and really, it's just to give a demonstration that it's high even amongst the military.

I think WEG said a Tie Defender cost 300 000 credits or something, saying it was very expensive for a starfighter.

Comander is a higher rank then Captain in the Star Wars Universe. Bacta War mentions it as well as the fact that Wedge was a Captain while Luke was a Commander, during the battle of Hoth.

They don't get paid. The economics of this galaxy is somewhat different from our's... they work to worsen themselves, for the detriment of humanity... yes, I'm joking, tried to reverse Picard's statement since the Empire is EVIL!!

Military pay depends on rank and time in service. There are Imperial ranks between Captian and Admiral, Just like there are ranks between Colonel and General

You have
Captian
Rear Admiral(Lower)
Rear Admiral(Upper)
Vice Admiral
Admiral

But since we never see Admiral's getting on and off ships we never hear their full titles. It might just be that Admiral A is infact a Rear Admiral(Upper)

But he's not going to be called that, he's going to be called "Admiral" period.

Same thing with Generals.

To point though military pay is not very good monitary wise. However military benfits have always traditionaly been very good. For example me gruntling in the Navy makes less that 30k a year but with "benfits"(Free medical, Dental, Food, Housing, and all the ammo I can shoot! ) I make the "equivlant" of 54,00$ a year. Navy Captian's with ten years make 75,000 base pay plus bonus pays like Hazard, Sep, and Housing allowence.

If it realy is based of our standards that gives you some idea of what Imperial Captians make.

Admiral Drason wrote:Comander is a higher rank then Captain in the Star Wars Universe. Bacta War mentions it as well as the fact that Wedge was a Captain while Luke was a Commander, during the battle of Hoth.

fighter corps ranks are different from naval ranks. Plus stackpole was ignoring the established and more or less just copying the USAF rank system

Ender wrote:fighter corps ranks are different from naval ranks. Plus stackpole was ignoring the established and more or less just copying the USAF rank system

IF Stackpole was copying the USAF, he wouldn't let Captains command squadrons.

In the X-Wing book series, the two authors pretty much followed the TIE Fighter /X-Wing game style schemes. The other books tend to follow more normal practices:

HTTE: Naval Captain Afyon > Wing Commander Antilles
DFR: Naval Captain Virgilio > Wing Commander Antilles
Hutt Gambit: Naval Captain Fel > Naval Commander Jelon

If we want to integrate Convarion (CO Corrupter) of Bacta War into the greater scheme, however, it is not difficult.

Convarion wore the 6-tab, 2-cyl configuration that marks him as a Commander. He was promoted to full Naval Captain rather than demoted when that cylinder was plucked (P.137). Certainly Isard seemed quietly happy for Convarion's actions. The comparison was with a junior grade of "captain", which we might provisionally call a Captain-Lieutenant. This will also reconcile the X-Wing tendency to imply/state naval captain < commander with the other sources.

Enforcer Talen wrote:U.S. Navy captains get 4728 a month, assuming 10 years in.

You might be able to use that as a baseline.

Adjusting for inflation, what did Nazi and Japanese Imperial Officers get?