Look, I already said that I know it is unrealistic, but if we ever want to fix the general suckiness of this job, we need to start setting some goals that raise the bar. There are plenty of technical careers out there that start wet behind the ears college grads at $40K or higher, or at least in the upper $30Ks. Furthermore, ALL decent corporations invest plenty of money in their new hires. The only thing that makes airlines any different is their ridiculous stinginess. It is their job to train us. They train us to work for THEM. Our training is 100% NON-TRANSFERABLE. There is absolutely NO legitimate justification for an airline to dock our pay just because they trained us. That just amounts to pay for training.

If you actually think that first year FO's SHOULD be paid less than $30K a year, then this job will just continue to get worse and worse.

You know management has done a fantastic job when they get pilots to do their stealing for them.

There is absolutely NO justification for low first year pay. We are professionals, and professionals do not start at $20K a year in 2007.