There is more than meets the eye when it comes to being an umpire. For example, did you know that they make an average of $26.79 an hour? That's $55,728 a year! Between 2018 and 2028, the career is expected to grow 6% and produce 1,300 job opportunities across the U.S.

What Does an Umpire Do

There are certain skills that many umpires have in order to accomplish their responsibilities. By taking a look through resumes, we were able to narrow down the most common skills for a person in this position. We discovered that a lot of resumes listed communication skills, decisionmaking skills and good vision.

How To Become an Umpire

If you're interested in becoming an umpire, one of the first things to consider is how much education you need. We've determined that 66.0% of umpires have a bachelor's degree. In terms of higher education levels, we found that 4.0% of umpires have master's degrees. Even though most umpires have a college degree, it's possible to become one with only a high school degree or GED.

Umpire Career Paths

Average Salary for an Umpire

Umpires in America make an average salary of $55,728 per year or $27 per hour. The top 10 percent makes over $122,000 per year, while the bottom 10 percent under $25,000 per year.
Average Umpire Salary
$55,728 Yearly
$26.79 hourly

What Am I Worth?

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Roles and Types of Umpire

There are several types of umpire, including:

Referee

Role:

If you want to know a sport inside out, then becoming a referee may bring a satisfactory role. Referring games may bring you some great benefits. You can be outside and run around, enjoy exciting games, and make a few dollars. Being a referee, you're rendering service to coaches, players, and fans. It's an incredible opportunity to give back to your community.

Being a sports referee, generally, you may preside over sporting or athletic events. Maintain the fairness and standards of an event or competition. Your core duty is to officiate the sporting events and games. Other than this, you may inspect sporting equipment, settle claims for infarction, enforce rules of the games and assess penalties. Being a referee, you may work for a professional sports organization, school, or community organizations. For some sports like boxing, you may work independently while for others you may work in groups.

To become a referee, generally, you may require a high school diploma and training. To be successful in a fast-paced environment, you must have an eye for detail, strong decision-making skills, physically active, and an ability to anticipate, observe and judge a play. As a sports referee, you might get in games, such as basketball, football, boxing, soccer, or volleyball.

Typically, you may work part-time. However, you may need to work irregular hours, weekends, or evenings for training sessions or seminars. Working as a referee, you may work few hours and make some pretty good money. Not only that, but as you improve and work higher level games, the money improves too.

  • Average Salary: $56,571
  • Degree: Bachelor's Degree

States With The Most Umpire Jobs

Number Of Umpire Jobs By State

RankStateNumber of JobsAverage Salary
1Arkansas53$50,553
2Texas12$35,648
3Wisconsin7$49,208
4Florida6$42,575
5Georgia6$37,715
6Colorado6$32,779
7Massachusetts4$64,868
8Utah4$49,804
9Montana4$47,406
10Tennessee4$39,209
11Missouri3$33,953
12Virginia2$75,940
13Arizona2$71,260
14California2$65,315
15Kansas2$46,185
16Illinois2$46,919
17Alabama2$37,932
18West Virginia1$71,400
19Michigan1$71,034
20Washington1$67,261
21Kentucky1$60,785
22North Carolina1$64,102
23Maryland1$63,572
24Indiana1$56,812
25Iowa1$54,624
26Minnesota1$47,392
27Pennsylvania0$76,498
28Connecticut0$73,191
29Vermont0$67,984
30Rhode Island0$64,462
31Maine0$63,690
32Delaware0$63,474
33New Hampshire0$62,703
34Oregon0$62,624
35New Mexico0$58,640
36Wyoming0$56,327
37Nevada0$57,927
38North Dakota0$53,927
39Ohio0$53,849
40Idaho0$50,761
41South Dakota0$47,423
42Alaska0$49,050
43Louisiana0$46,291
44New Jersey0$47,710
45New York0$47,835
46South Carolina0$44,845
47Oklahoma0$39,907
48Hawaii0$38,626
49Nebraska0$33,961
50Mississippi0$32,303

Umpire Education

Umpire Majors

20.8 %

Umpire Degrees

Bachelors

66.0 %

Associate

13.8 %

High School Diploma

13.5 %

Top Skills For an Umpire

The skills section on your resume can be almost as important as the experience section, so you want it to be an accurate portrayal of what you can do. Luckily, we've found all of the skills you'll need so even if you don't have these skills yet, you know what you need to work on. Out of all the resumes we looked through, 25.8% of umpires listed umpires on their resume, but soft skills such as communication skills and decisionmaking skills are important as well.

  • Umpires, 25.8%
  • Safety Regulations, 12.4%
  • Leadership, 11.1%
  • Game Rules, 9.8%
  • Judgment Calls, 5.0%
  • Other Skills, 35.9%

Choose From 10+ Customizable Umpire Resume templates

Zippia allows you to choose from different easy-to-use Umpire templates, and provides you with expert advice. Using the templates, you can rest assured that the structure and format of your Umpire resume is top notch. Choose a template with the colors, fonts & text sizes that are appropriate for your industry.

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Umpire diversity

Umpire Gender Distribution

Male
Male
84%
Female
Female
16%

After extensive research and analysis, Zippia's data science team found that:

  • Among umpires, 15.6% of them are women, while 84.4% are men.

  • The most common race/ethnicity among umpires is White, which makes up 68.8% of all umpires.

  • The most common foreign language among umpires is Spanish at 69.6%.

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Top Umpire Employers

Most Common Employers For Umpire

RankCompanyAverage SalaryHourly RateJob Openings
1Vine$74,333$35.744
2Cal Ripken Sr. Foundation$62,457$30.038
3B. F. Saul$59,885$28.795
4Big League Dreams$59,043$28.395
5cherry-creek$56,638$27.234
6Northwoods$56,568$27.204
7USSSA$53,597$25.7749
8Texas Association of Counties$49,428$23.765
9Ohio High School Athletic Association$48,138$23.144
10Northern Water$46,845$22.526

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