Let's take the MD-88/90 Captain position as an example.

2004 C2K rate was $240. After the 42% pay cut, that rate was $139. If a guy flew 80 hours per month, that's almost $97K for the year just in pay cuts. Now add in the lost value of the pension and a full decade of stagnation due to outsourcing, and I think you've easily got over $100K.

Up until two years ago, our bankruptcy level pay rates had only kept up with inflation. So up until two years ago, we were still looking at a 42% pay cut and that MD-88/90 Captain was still looking at a similar deficit in pay cuts. Again, add in the lost value of the pension and all those years of stagnation and I think you've easily got over $100K per year. The past two years (under C2012) reduced the pay cut from 42% to 34%. So very little progress there.

I don't have any hard data to conclusively prove the claim I'm making of the $1 million contribution per pilot (to date). But I think my assumptions are pretty sound. It's a wag on my part. But I'll bet it's not far off.