Originally Posted by Green Needles

Struck a nerve there did I? A pay cut is a pay cut, no matter how you sell it. You're sounding like the shady airlines that include health insurance in their fuzzy math for a "total compensation" to sell the new guys on. You say the 401k has no matching right now? That's completely false. Also, you only get that full amount if you are here five years to be fully vested, otherwise a percentage is gone!

Sick and vacation is paid at a low rate, but I reiterate: sick time is worthless unless you take it. You can have thousands of hours accrued in sick time, but when you leave the company, you know what you get for it? Absolutely nothing! If we were to get paid for the balance of our sick time when you leave the company, that would make a huge difference, because sick time would then be money in the bank.

Yes there are more things that factor into total compensation, but if your salary (paycheck) goes down, that's a pay cut, no matter how you want to propagandize it.

New guys need to know the plain unvarnished truth, not just what recruiters are telling them. If someone still wants to come here knowing a pay cut is likely and we have no career progression, that's fine. They just need to know that coming in.

While there isn't a pilot shortage, Mesa can still hire , the company needs pilots. That puts us in a very good place to negotiate.