Originally Posted by
captkdobbs
Good question. Is this something historical? Did the company or ALPA (of old) choose this? Was it a compromise?
This seems like it is more favorable to the company in terms of projecting cost and limiting pay growth, but it also is a negotiating point for both sides for costing purposes.
It's better for the pilots. Longer term longevity steps is a Regional thing primarily to move more money to the senior pilots at a given contract time. ALPA studies have shown that over the course of a career a pilot makes more by having them top out earlier rather than later. As a career airline it thus makes sense to keep that kind of pattern.
To put it more simply, the top out pay tends to be very close or the same, so extending it out further just reduces pay earlier on so you can have all the "steps."