I think it’s fair to say that people did suffer on pay. And that only ended six months ago.

4A2C reduced annual credit to 704. The B757 FO pay rate was $163. That’s about $115,000 annual salary.

Think about the average new hire. Probably around 35 years old. That’s right in the wheel house of having a young family. With an airline schedule, that means probably a spouse that decided to stay at home. People had to make tough choices like selling homes, returning to work, quitting private school, etc. Maybe not bread lines, but it’s not a coincidence that we had several pilots take their own lives. I’m not trying to dramatize, but that happened at higher rates than other eras.

When crises hit at the other carriers, managers and executives reduced their commensurate with the employees. The fact that executives didn’t do the same here showed that it was more about tactics than necessity.