That is far too low. But don't succumb to the online plague of nodding your head while a bunch of angry keyboard commandos tell each other what they want to hear, and somehow equate that with effective negotiations between two vested parties--it isn't. Even this hypothetical 10/5/5 takes a 300/hr position to 363, and you can also add our current 16% DC to the higher rates.

As for the 25% DC, COUPLED with huge pay raises--that is as much a fantasy as a perpetual motion machine. Sailing once pointed it out--it represents a whole lot more money than it first appears. Take a 12 year captain making $300K--that is very typical these days, if not below average, believe it or not. Easily done with a domestic 73N/A320 captain. Now give this guy a 30% raise. That $285/hr he is currently making is now $370/hr. 400K a year is the minimum this guy will likely be making going forward, assuming no GS etc. Now let's take the DC calculations into effect. The 16% DC on 300K equals $48K a year--one of the best DC contributions in the country, in any industry, by the way. But the angry deadzoner crowd is never happy. Now let's talk 25% DC on $400k. I think we can all do the math real easily. That equals $100k a year into the DC fund. Of course that's maxed with the 415C IRS limits, around $61K, so the rest goes into taxable, ordinary income.

So tell me why I am swilling the koolaid when I tell you that literally DOUBLING the end result of a 30% pay raise, plus 25% DC is going to be a non-starter with the mgmt negotiating team. It isn't drinking koolaid, it is living the in the real world, a world only occasionally inhabited by the forum crowds.

All I care about is results. And I remain very amused at the guys who simultaneously sneer at the "Time Value of Money" crowd, while they lament how inflation is eating away at our C19 payrates--the very definition of TVM.