Originally Posted by
flyingback
I feel like I'm getting trolled something wicked here, but, this statement is just not true. It may not offer a particular person a balanced return. That's true of many things in life.
Please, SkyHigh, tell me what careers do offer a balanced return for the effort.
(By quick math I'm currently making 15% more and working 77% less (than outside aviation) ... roughly 5:1 advantage for my personal time)
There are lots of careers that offer a much better balance of efforts to return. Plumber, electrician, Cop, Firefighter, accountant, army private to name a few because they require little investment for what they receive in return. There are plenty of enlisted military on this forum who not only have a nice and real retirement after 20 years but the military paid for college and grad school as well.
Pilots sit in the airplane 6 to 8 hours a day but then at the end of the day they usually don't go home but to a hotel instead. All time away from base counts as work. To suggest that it does not is like telling a security guard that since they sit and watch TV all night that it really isn't working either. Any hour that you give to the company is working. As such pilots work an average of 360 hours a month or 4320 hours a year. A typical 9 to 5er works 160 hours a month or 1920 hours a year.
Per Diem isn't pay. A 401K is not a real retirement. Increasingly pilots are being paid in job satisfaction and not in kind to the effort it took to get there.
SkyHigh