Monthly guarantee is typically 75 hours but yes, you will get paid the 75 hours even if you are only scheduled to fly 2 hours. Hence the term guarantee.

You break guarantee when you pay credit for the month goes over 75 hours (your monthly guarantee). Your pay credit is determined by things such as duty rigs, etc.

Cancellation pay is where you get paid whether the flight goes or not. So if there is bad weather and the flight cancels, you get paid. As of right now, I believe only RAH and Mesa don't have leg by leg cancellation pay. Cancellation pay is huge because you can go to work for 14 hours and only get paid per diem for your day of sitting around the airport. That's right, you won't even make minimum wage. Still not sure how RAH gets away with it.

Deadheading is when you are riding in the back to be put in a position for a flight or being returned to your base at the completion of a trip. Most places do not pay you 100% pay for this time. You will typically only be paid 50-75% of your actual time deadheading. A few good companies actually compensate you for your time and pay 100% like they should.

Duty rig basically guarantees you a certain amount of pay for a certain amount of time on duty. So say you have a duty day of 14 hours but only fly 5 hours, with a 2:1 duty rig, you would get paid 7 hours instead of just 5. A lot of places have a minimum day pay and a trip rig as well. So just giving up a day off you will get a minimum of say 4 hours even if you only fly 2 hours. Trip rig is based on Time Away from Base (TAFB) and is designed to basically force the company to use you efficiently and give you more time off with higher pay. If the ratio is 2.5:1 and you have a TAFB of 65 hours, you would get paid a minimum of 26 hours.

Block or better can be either by the leg, day, or trip. By the leg is really the only one worth while. So every flight is scheduled to be a certain length of time based on aircraft performance, weather, and past history. Say a flight from DCA-MSP is credited at 2.5 hours but it takes you 2.1 hours to get there, you get paid 2.5 hours still. If it takes you 3.0 hours you get paid the 3.0.

With block or better by-the-leg, say you are flying 3 flights for the day worth 2.0 hours each making your day worth 6 hours. You under block the first flight by 15 minutes, over block the next one by an hour and under block the last by 30 minutes, you will be paid 7.0 hours. With by-the-day, you will get paid for 6 hours 15 minutes. With by-the-trip, you will pretty much lose all your overage pay because you will end up underblocking on a good portion of your trip. This means that you aren't being properly compensated for the time you sat for an hour on the ground in LGA. Alot of times, it will mean the difference of getting paid 26 hours for a 4 day versus getting paid 20 hours which adds up a lot in a year.

Also, look out for the definition of block time because some places like Piedmont only start getting paid once the aircraft moves 50 feet after door closure. A lot of times you will get placed on gate hold meaning you can't move 50 feet but have the door closed with passengers you are responsible for up to 2 hours not getting paid. This is while the Expressjet pilot next to you is getting paid.