Take the Gulf as an example starting wage as a diver is only 15-18 dollars an hour even without a rig you can double that as a welder. Thats not to say that the pay isn't better else where, but after one spends the money you have to too go to diving school you would think the rates would be higher for the risk involved out of a class of 23 only 5 of us broke in to the industry, two we're killed in the 1st year, the third killed in the 2nd that leaves me and and my buddy Don that can still tell a good sea story, The story of the bags of money that diver/welders make is just that a story, not to say I did'nt make some good coin now and then but in fact that is not the norm unless you go into sat which is another story altogether. Diving for me was never about the money thats why I stayed with it. It was the challenge and satisfaction of doing what most guys can't do on agood day when you can see never mind black water. Oh ya and the chicks dig ya.