Originally Posted by
ChinookDriver47
First year of FO pay at 40$ and hour. Instead of BIG jumps, raise the starting pay initally and make the raises smaller. I am more inclined to go to a company who has an "ALL FO / ALL CA" payscale or at the most, a two airframe payscale. It is less to worry about and less to have to fight management with when it comes time for contract negotiation. I think it breeds a tighter pilot group. Just my thoughts.
I'd love to see probationary pay $40/hr, but it simply won't happen at the regionals for at least the next decade...$40/hr is more than what many legacies/LCCs pay their newhires! I think $30/hr is much more realistic for pilot groups to expect and spend negotiating capital to obtain...and $40/hr is a nice starting point for 2nd year pay on a 50 seat small jet.
I actually support a single rate for all CL-65 variants (-200/700/900/1000). There is precedent within ALPA for a single rate for larger aircraft, and a single rate allows all pilots at a company with a small number of large airframes relative to the total fleet (for example, 10 -900s and 60 -200s) to get a nice raise while allowing folks to bid for QOL instead of a paycheck. Dual qualification also provides the company with training & maintenance cost savings among other synergies.
Work rules being the equal, make the single payrate the highest 70 seat rate in the industry and you'll likely have no problem getting a pilot group to ratify it.