Doctors, lawyers, even CPAs, start out with such high salaries in comparison to a starting regional airline pilot (notice I said starting AIRLINE pilot--a pilot will have had years of other low-paying flying jobs before even getting that regional airline job) that the POSSIBLE eventual earnings of a senior airline pilot still don't balance out the criminally low wages one contends with early on. Remember: decent wages earned earlier are FAR more valuable in the long run, provided they're invested properly, than high wages later in a career.
Now about those "possible" earnings: since it's such a small minority of pilots that ever reach (and remain at) top levels, their salaries can't really be included in an accurate "expected" future earnings estimate. A regional airline pilot will see a steady progression in pay during his time with that company, but never to the level of the majors. After some time (ten years is borderline wishful thinking) he MAY land that job with the majors, in which case he can expect the high earnings as his seniority advances, provided there are no furloughs/bankruptcies/buyouts along the way, which are all but guaranteed to happen. Because of these factors, an airline pilot's salary progression can't really be compared to the reasonable expectation of salary advances over ten years of experience as a doctor.
Another issue is lateral mobility. In most fields, a qualified individual can leave a firm and expect the same or higher compensation with a new firm. Airline pilot salaries are seniority-based within each company, so leaving one company means an automatic reduction in pay to the lowest level in the new company, and a number of years must be spent climbing the ladder all over again, still with the danger of furloughs/bankruptcies/buyouts.
Last edited by Uncle Bose; 06-07-2006 at 08:07 PM.