Originally Posted by
Flaps15
You know, people often warn future pilots about the pay they're going to make the first few years. However, as a student in college who is learning to fly, 18K beats the ~10K I'm making now. As long as you live within your means and don't go out and buy a BMW as soon as you're offered a reserve job you should make it okay. You might have to commute to work in order to live somewhere affordable but that's part of being in this industry. Bottom of the totem pole really isn't as bad as people make it sound, i'm willing to bet. It's these kids that go in with a self-righteous "i'm a big bad pilot" attitude that are probably telling people like myself to steer clear of the industry.
10k is pretty good. Considering you don't have to pay school loans yet. But combine that with only a 8k increase in pay. Plus those that have a family, mortgage, etc.. it is nothing!
Name another career that you spend this amount of time in training/school only to earn 20k per year? Residency doctors earn average of 40k. That is the equivalent of the amount of time/training we put in out of flight instructing for 2 years to get into a regional. Plus if doctors lose their job in the future, they don't restart at the bottom! They pick up where their experience level will pay them.
I know not every pilot can be a doctor, and the same goes the other way. Something has got to change.