I've got a question about posted pay scales.
How does it work if say, a First Officer at ExpressJet has four years of right seat time making $40/hr? Let's say this First Officer elects to upgrade from a CRJ200 to a CRJ700. Does he/she start over at $23/hr or does he go to $42/hr for his/her four years of flight experience with the company? Is it the same way with Captains?
Another way of asking this question is this: do you get paid for your experience level in a specific aircraft at the company, your overall years experience as either a FO or CA at the company, or your total years at the company with the aircraft being the variable?
Unfortunately, Pinnacle/Endeavor pilots have a new contract that says that FO's that upgrade will start at year 1 captain pay. It's still a raise, but not as much as it would be if they went to the pay commensurate with their seniority. I hope that this does not become a trend.
However, it's not the first time this has been done. Net Jets did it with the BBJ when they had it, Independence (the old Atlantic Coast, call sign "Blue Ridge") did it with with the Airbus, and Cathay does it as well. It makes more sense if you are going from a relatively small plane to a relatively large one, or when the company needs the savings to make a totally new business model work, a la Independence (which failed anyway, but not because of the employee pay).
But, in the example above, the 4 year ExpressJet FO making $40/hr would go into the captain scales at 4 year pay, so using the numbers on APC, he'd get a bump to $66/hr. At Endeavor, that 4 year FO would instead go to $60/hr. Again, it's a nice bump, but not the $69/hr he'd make under the traditional model.
Just as an FYI, the new pay rates don't usually start until the day you start OE in the new seat. There may also be a clause in the contract that if the training is delayed due to no fault of the pilot, the pilot can get paid his new rate after so many days of waiting. At UAL, a lot of guys are getting paid for equipment that they aren't flying because the training has been delayed.