Originally Posted by
mostpeople
This
filler
If only...if it were an accurate statement (it's not).
I found the Pan Am contract for various years some time ago. It was interesting going through it. At the absolute
peak of their pay, the 747 CA was hitting $500k in todays dollars.
Thing is, that was the very absolute peak, it lasted for just a few years (at most) and there were very few of those jobs. In fact, the entire industry was significantly smaller pre-deregulation in general, and most of us wouldn't have jobs had it not been for the massive expansion the industry enjoyed.
That doesn't even touch on how much better the current job is, as we don't have to endure yearly layoffs in the low seasons anymore (that was SOP back then).
WASHINGTON, Dec. 16. (AP) —United Air Lines and the Air Line Pilots Association have agreed to a new contract that will increase wages of the airline pilots by 22 per cent over the next 31 months, the union said today.
A spokesman for the pilots said that the contract, which still must be ratified by the union's Master Executive Council, covers 5,400 pilots flying for United, the nation's largest domestic airline.
The contract will increase wages for senior pilots at United by $14,000, to $80,616, the union said, while increasing the wages of second officers with the least seniority by about $6,000.
The contract calls for a 6 per cent salary increase retroactive to June 1, 1974, a 6 per cent rise on, June 1, 1975, a 4 per cent increase on Jan. 1, 1976, and another 4 per cent rise on June 1, 1976.
So top end senior UA Capts were to make $80,000 in ~1977, a current inflation adjusted amount of $440,000. I think we can all agree that that is only the lower end of NB pay these days, not a senior triple CA.
The 80's were a bloodbath, with de-regulation coming later in the 70's that saw the rise of discount carrier SWA and bankruptcies and liquidations galore.