"Why do A&Ps make less than any other kind of mechanic" Or almost any other blue collar worker for that matter.
I've wondered this many times, I've owned my own shop, and worked at others, and almost without exception the local small engine shop had a higher shop rate, and their mechanics made more. It just never added up to me why a guy changing the oil in a lawn mower would make as much as an A&P.
Like others on this forum, I'm a certificated mechanic and commercial pilot, with close to 30 years in the industry. I had a job not too long ago doing maintenance and grounds crewing for an aerial applicator (AKA 'crop duster'), where I was quite vocal about wanting to transition to a pilot position. After 6 years of being there I was making 48,000 year, plus benefits, which was pretty good, and close to the top pay anywhere in the area. The last time I talked to the boss about transitioning to piloting he told me they were more interested in keeping me in the shop, and offered me a substantial pay increase to stay there, his reasoning? It's easy to find pilots, but they couldn't get mechanics. The pilots were making 6 figures for 4 months of work, I was making less than half that for 12. If I have the license, experience, and desire to fly, why shouldn't I? Why would somebody work longer hours for lower pay, to do a job they don't like an much? The obvious answer is pay, if you have your pick of pilots you're paying well in the industry, if you can't find mechanics you're not paying enough. There are other factors to be sure, but pay is the big denominator for getting good people working for you. We were both home every night, the pilots weren't responsible for passengers lives, if anything the ground crew had it harder working sunup to sundown in the heat while the pilots had A/C and frequently had midday breaks. Now, the pilots were certainly more experienced and skilled, and the stakes could be much higher if they screwed up than if one of us screwed up, but it was the lack of willingness to let me try to transition, the desire to keep my in shop regardless of my desire/capabilities that really got to me.
If it was an isolated incident I would think perhaps they just didn't trust me as a pilot, but when I left there to pursue flying full time almost every prospective employer I contacted was more interested in my A&P/IA than they were my commercial pilot. And, much like others, I found myself doing more than a little maintenance work. If you think working as a mechanic for pilots wages is bad wait until your employer expects you to A&P for free because you're making the big bucks as a professional pilot!
It got bad enough that in the last batch of resumes I sent out I left off the fact that I had my IA, and the first few phone calls started out with 'I see you have your A&P, have you ever considered getting your IA?'.
I think it boils down to the industry pays what it has to, it's been established that this is what we get, and there had been enough mechanics willing to work for this pay, so that's where it's stagnated. Someone further up pointed out that there might be a bigger mechanic shortage than pilot shortage however,
and that's the truth. There's an even bigger shortage of good A&P's, and I think it's going to get worse before it gets better.