Originally Posted by aLtLBirdieAtTW

That math doesn’t realistically check out.

Base SIC Salary: $35k before tax
Per Diem: $3.21/duty hour
Schedule: 4/3 means 17 days on per month
Max Duty On: 14hrs

3.21x 14hrs x 16days x 12mo = ~$9,000
*Meals per Diem is NOT INCOME* but for the purposes of total compensation I will include it here.

56,000 - 9,000 - 35,000 = $12k left you have to cover with hard days. As an SIC the hard day rate is $300 +$150 “banked” (read: withheld) until you fulfill your contract. The website doesn’t mention this either… just says $450.

Let’s be an optimist and pretend that time value of money doesn’t exist and my hard day dollars earned today are worth the same in 12-18mo when I fulfill said contract…

$12,400 / 450 = ~28 hard days required per year or ~3 per mo
$12,400 / 300 = ~42 hard days required per year or ~4 per mo

Both are technically possible, but all of this assumes you receive per diem all your days on (there are plenty of standby days) and are able to even get hard days. We are so fat on SICs at the moment (anecdotally here) I haven’t seen any SICs able to get any hard days since last March… There have certainly been a handful but not consistently every month. To add to this, the company guarantees 13 days off per month. By working 3-4 hard days you are eliminating ~25% of your time off… that’s a big damn commitment.

The point is the number on the website is misleading at least and quite honestly disheartens me that they’re calling it the “average” for pilots. Instead of misleading potential new hires about pay to make the situation seem better they should just pay the base salaries they say are already the average.