Originally Posted by
NavyGimp
After having a couple of drinks with my wife last night, we got on the topic of pilot pay. She said she thinks it's crazy how little we get paid when we're sitting around the airport between flights. So, I mentioned the whole block pay concept and she asked why we don't get our hourly pay when we're doing actual pilot duties (i.e. preflight, flight planning). I actually hadn't really given it thought, but why don't we get paid at report time, or 45 min prior to block out?
I don't expect anything to be solved here, just curious what everyone's thoughts are.
A lot of things were sort of arbitrary when they got started (which side of the road you drive on for example). But now that they are established and written into a multitude of contracts, it would take effort and negotiation to change them. And no doubt the initial management response to such a contract change would be an hourly wage decrease intended to make it a zero-sum game. So inertia alone will probably keep the current system.