This isn't an apples to apples comparison, not even apples to oranges. It's more like apples to banana spiders. The percentages apply to different concepts, so you cannot compare them.


Currently, a pilot can earn an average of $260,000 for any five years, and next to nothing for the other 20, and receive the full $130,000 annual benefit in retirement.


In the proposed plan, the one they kept calling the "New Plan" yesterday as if it were a done deal, the percentage that counts is the market performance number in a particular year multiplied by the pilot's W-2 earnings in that same year. That earns him "shares" in a virtual mutual fund, the value of such shares being determined when that pilot retires. The next year, the process repeats. The more you work, the more shares you get. The worse the market, the more shares you get. Add up all the shares from all the years, and that's what you end up with. When markets are good, the share values go up, and when markets are bad, the share values go down -- even the shares which you "earned" during good years. But the only year that counts to determine your actual retirement benefit is the year the pilot retires. Choose your retirement date wisely. If you retire in a good year, all of your shares are more valuable, but if you retire in a bad year, all of your shares are less valuable.


The scheme will encourage pilots to work harder, and longer, because every dollar earned will increase the number of retirement shares you can earn. (I'm sure the junior guys will love what that will do to seat progression.) There will be no such thing as getting your high five early and then taking it easy in the later years.






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