None of my friends make 20k their first year so I really don't know if you are referring to a janitor or some other blue collar job. Plus they work 40 hours per week and get to be home for every weekend and every holiday out there and they did not spend additional 50k in ratings. If you expect pilots to a certain level of responsibility then maybe we should be getting paid like responsible adults and not like kids living with their parents because they can't afford a crappy apartment. How is that OK with you? Need I add that as pilot with every new job you ALWAYS start with a first year pay? A college graduate only makes first year pay once in their lifetime. As long as pilots like you keep telling themselves that it's OK to work for peanuts this profession will keep sinking. Maybe instead of defending this business we should tell public how it really is and that way we spare some poor soul of making the mistake that I made by becoming a pilot. But I assume that for the most of us it's easier to deny how poorly we are treated because it's much cooler to tell other how awesome we have it... The fact is that most of us on these forums are here because that's the only place where we can ***** and remain anonymous and not embarrassed of how crappy things are.