As I've been reading this forum, I must say it strikes me as quite amazing the number of people who feel that it's the fault of Lakes pilots that pay in the industry is low. I'd like to try and resolve this with a little bit of business knowledge. Pay, in any business, is largely determined by the revenue able to supply it. If a business has a lot of money coming in, they are able to pay more (ie; oil companies are known to pay their execs well) and if a business has a low revenue and low profit margin the employee seems to be paid less (ie; flipping $1 double cheeseburgers seems to pay closer to minimum wage than an oil exec.). Now in this forum there has been some recollection of the days when mainline captains and fo's were paid well into the 6 figures, but what was flying like back then? A high profit luxury item. Looking at airlines today, they have shifted their model from a high profit luxury expense to a low profit margin ticket.

All I am saying is as passengers have demanded lower fares, management has had to reduce ticket prices to stay competitive. The real people responsible for all of our fairly low pay is not sitting in a lakes cockpit or in an upper level management position; they are all sitting behind you. They scour the Internet looking for a low fare, then still gripe about having to pay that for the flight. Then management, who is also usually blamed for our low pay, has to at least try to break even. As such, when they reduce fares and the profit margin goes negative, the company will then do what it takes to reduce costs to return to the black (didn't AMR lose almost a billion dollars 4th quarter last year? How would you turn that ship around?). As with any business, labor is the most expensive. Therefore, it is usually the first targeted.

So why then are Lakes pilots paid the least? Well our competition certainly isn't mainline carriers, but we run routes from out stations to hubs that people could drive if they felt that the ticket price was too much. So to keep people in the airplane, the fare has to be set low enough so that the person would rather fly with us then drive to the hub and fly out of there. That is what keeps ticket prices down and in turn that is what keeps pay down.

Also, everyone here seems to agree that regionals are a bottom feed to a major. And all this income comparison goes so far, but look at other industries. Don't most starting doctors start with year long unpaid internships? Followed by many years as an aid or assistant for wages similar to ours. Also, the student debt for a doctor is probably going to be much higher than ours. Same with lawyers, unpaid internships, then work under a big name lawyer in town for wages equally as small with debt usually well into the 6 figures. Being a pilot and making 20, 30, 40 some odd thousand a year isn't like we're underpaid. We are after all in the same company as doctors and lawyers.

Then lastly, all this comparison about pay, qol, upgrade times, getting hired at a major, etc. What kind of tit for tat game is this? We're all working toward the same things and shouldn't we all really be viewing ourselves as in this together? I mean, we all want a job at a major where our pay is better and our schedules are more nice to us, yet we're here trying to defend the job that we have to get us to our dream job? Our employment here at a regional (just like any employment I suppose) is a use-use relationship. 16 bucks an hour or 30 bucks are all nothing compared to what our top salary could be (250,000?). We're all scraping the bottom and trying to point fingers and pretend that we're less at the bottom of the pit than others? Guys, we're in this together and I wish everyone the best of success where ever it is that you go. We all want to move on, and I wish that we all do.