Originally Posted by
135tankerdriver
i don’t understand why Pilots are only paid by flight hour. Sounds like you guys are working long days and should be getting time and a half or double time for anything over 8 hours a day. Also, by only getting paid by the flight hour you are effectively only getting a portion of that pay per actual hour worked. So you make 150 per flight hour but in essence I’m guessing you are making way less than that per hour on the clock.
This was my rational for not becoming an airline pilot ten years ago when I first considered it.
I did the math…
You’re at work 24 hours a day for 16 days a month… approximately 4,600 hours a year.
Most regional pilots were making approximately $24,000 a year.
24,000/4,600= approximately $5 an hour.
I was making more money then that when I was 12 years old working on a farm. I decided there was better ways to spend my time. Many others my age in flight training agreed. A bunch of “would be” pilots walked away which is an often overlooked contributing factor to the current shortage. At least the industry has corrected itself and entry level wages have sky rocketed