Originally Posted by overcast

To put the pay in prospective, this came from King5 today:

Quote: New numbers show households making $72,000 in King and Snohomish counties are considered ‘low income.'

The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development released its revised income limits, which can determine who qualifies for affordable and subsidized housing, such as Section 8.

The $72,000 number is for a family of four. The low-income limit is 80 percent of the median income in those counties. Very low income limits, which are 50 percent of median income, are $48,000. Extremely low-income is $28,800. That’s 30 percent of median income. End quote.

So after spending a fortune on college and flight training your before-tax earnings qualify you for section 8 (and food stamps) as extremely low income earner. Can you imagine when you walk -in uniform- from the light rail to your section8 projects on MLK or Rainier Avenue?

72000 is a struggle in the Pacific Northwest for a family of 4. Rent is outrageous, new home prices out of control, taxes are high even though WA has no state income tax.

When are the airlines (all of them first couple of years, regionals the most) going to realize that their wages have nothing to do anymore with living life and paying bills? Yes, they can't find pilots. No wonder, nobody can afford to work for those wages, and nobody is recommending anyone to become a pilot anymore.

I would love to come back to the Pacific Northwest to work, I still live there. but to put food on the table I am working a little farther (few thousand miles) away from home.