Originally Posted by
Bhounddog
I’m considering a career change going CFI to regional route and I’m trying to figure out how much regional pilots REALLY get paid so I can plan a budget.
I’ve seen all the pay scales for each regional airline. However, it’s challenging to deduce how much regional pilots really take home because of the ambiguous bonuses and bullish regional airline recruitment marketing promising “up to $65K FIRST YEAR FO PAY!!!”
After looking at pay scales, it looks like first year FOs at most regional airlines make about $37K @75 hours p/m. Even if I received a $15k bonus, bonuses are taxed at a much higher rate than regular comp.
When bonuses are factored in, taxes deducted, how much do regional pilots actually take home each month?
How much should I realistically expect to make my first year? How much for 2nd-4th year? How much do regional captains really make?
Yes, I know there will be many variables that will create various answers. I’m just hoping to get a general idea of how much take home pay will really be to create a budget.
A general rule of thumb is to take the pay rate X 1000 to determine annual compensation. That will roughly account for guarantee, over guarantee flying, per diem, training pay, etc. Yes if you're a homeboy and don't ever want to work you'll make less, and you'll make much more if you sell your soul to the company and pick up extra flying all the time. The other big factor to consider is reserve time, as generally you will make less on reserve than as a line holder, so an airline with long reserve times will usually hurt your pay. So if you go to a place and expect to upgrade in 3 years, and the 3rd year CA pay rate is 70/hr, then you can roughly plan to make about 70 grand that year as a captain.
Also a note on bonuses, they are withheld when paid out at a 25% federal tax rate (plus state, local, etc) but at the end of the year all compensation counts towards your taxable income and all taxes withheld go towards whatever your tax bill is based on your taxable income.