Originally Posted by
uboatdriver
First year pay at many, if not all, US airlines is low. Second year pay is a better comparison.
Take first and second year pay and add it together...then go back after five years and see who made more money over the past five years. You are rationalizing based on the carrot rather than what's in your wallet,
You are also comparing the highest paying airlines in the US with some of the lowest paying overseas jobs...which are still higher over near term and on average. You are also not considering the tax advantages but that's a separate issue as far as I'm concerned.
Granted I don't know all the companies that hire expats. But all second year UPS FOs makes more than any captain at Emirates.
UPS is a good place to work, there's no doubt. But it's not exactly indicative of average pay at US airlines is it? It's also a cargo carrier and you fly the back side of the clock typically. Granted flying for a foreign carrier can impose similar stresses if you commute.
Show me the expat companies that pay more.
Pretty much any carrier in Asia. Starting salary for a captain in China is between $200K and $300K. There are pilots over there making close to $350K with overtime. And that's first year. Japan and Korea are also up there. It's also interesting to note that smaller regional jets can pay as much as a heavy jet in many cases.
But this isn't my point. You are focusing only on the highest paid jobs in America, not the average pay and the lowest paid jobs and why there is such a disparity.
The seniority system only works well if you are hired young and low time at one of these very few higher paying airlines and can stick around long enough to gain seniority.
What about all those other pilots? The ones who are stuck at regionals building time for more than ten years or the ones who get laid off at an airline after putting in ten or twenty years? You are ignoring the larger issue and focusing solely on the carrot.