Originally Posted by flensr

I went to spirit with 28 years of flying experience (20 of it paid) and I was damn glad to get my $38/hr. I think your expectations are a little out of whack. I agree that first year pay most places sucks but companies are going to set first year pay as low as possible as both a filter against entitled folks who don't REALLY want to work at that company, to manage the number of applications they get, and to manage the experience level of people they hire. If they're not getting the quality of applicants they want, the company is free to bump up first year pay at any time. But they don't, which means they're perfectly happy with their applicant pool.

If it's too low for you and you don't think it's worth it in spite of the millions of dollars in future career earnings getting on that seniority list NOW represents, then you're obviously not the applicant they're looking for. That doesn't mean it's right, that's just the way it is.

And I'll repeat my points - looking at just first year pay is extremely illogical, and it's possible to survive almost anywhere on any major's first year pay with a little lifestyle management.