Originally Posted by
somertime32
So I assume you are talking averages for salary since you mentioned 40k/year for our FOs. That is below police and teacher averages per year. The BLS reported in 2012 the median annual salary for patrol officers was $55,270. Average teacher salary as of September 2014 is $52,552. National Education Association reports an average national starting teacher salary of $36,141 in 2012/13. The average starting police pay is anywhere from $26,000-$49,000. I am not sure what you mean by other transportation workers but I'll just assume they make more too. I am not sure whether you were saying our FOs make more or less but I just wanted to add some numbers.
This is a flawed comparison.. You are comparing FO's (those at the beginning of this career, and at the lowest end of a pilots pay scale) to ALL teachers, beginning to tenured veterans. A teacher in his/her 15th year makes a lot more than a teacher in the first 1-4 years. (Sound familiar?) Same with police. A rookie in a small town makes $25-30k tops. A 25 year veteran detective pulls down 5-10 times that amount in a big city. We can't compare FO salarys to the entire scale average of other jobs. Most every job on earth starts at lower pay for the first few years than later in your career. Even the NFL has a rookie salary structure.
At least all those people don't have to start over at the bottom of the pay scale if they move. Who and how should we compare our pay to?