Originally Posted by
flyphisher
Hired '96. Upgraded '07. Downgraded '10. Upgraded '13. So 3.5 years on the panel, 14 years right seat. About 17.5 years not in the captain seat. Probably more like 16.5-17 when you parse the months.
Someone posted about inflation; ie, hourly today not giving the buying power as was 20 years ago. Partially true. However, remember, the last contract we had fixed the hidden B scale for f/o's. Once upgrading to f/o from the panel, "back in the day", with 1-3 years on the property, f/o pay was based on a percentage of captain pay as always. Say was 66% of captain pay. The problem was there was no 1-3 year captains; therefore, captain hourly was very low and nobody really noticed it. This resulted in a hidden B scale for the f/o's. That was fixed in the last contract. F/o's today get a very nice raise their second year and continues from there. So the inflation factorial is partially true. But the other reality is that f/o's today make much more, even if accounting for inflation, than they did before. That hidden B scale went until about 9th year.
Respect your, Vito's, Salty's and other senior (at least to us) pilots' perspectives. I also agree with your $$ analysis. I was merely trying to point out that the pay disparities between then and now aren't as huge as one would think. Eliminating the B scale was a fantastic achievement without a doubt. ...at the very least it corrected a huge error from (a) previous contract(s).
The dissatisfaction here boils down to the fact many of us won't ever upgrade. It's not pessimism but rather realism. Most of us were older when we joined brown compared to the previous groups. I view myself as an optimistic person and as you can see from my previous posts, overall I'm happy here. However I don't foresee ever upgrading here at brown and it stings. Granted I've had plenty of pic flying at a previous gig but the fact this probably is as good as it gets simply sux. A double-whammy - for many of us a permanent fo seat AND because of it we'll also receive a smaller, fo pay based pension. :-(
So someone can spend 16-18 years at bigbrown and retire with an fo pension. I view the current captain versus fo pension as the secondary B-scale, and it's not very "hidden." I believe the pension should be based on longevity and not the seat.
Either way, I and everyone else will be just fine. I simply ask for your understanding that no, we don't necessarily see things the way you do and probably never will. I'd imagine you feel the same way about us.
In unity,
WS