How's this for FO pay...

Federally mandated minimum pay scale to ensure pilots have adequate finances to avoid lifestyle stress and fatigue.

$42K (base military pay for the equivalent job at the O-2 paygrade, but without military bonuses or allowances). This would allow the pilot to get by just fine in middle America.


The pilot would then have the option of:

1) Live where he wants (within 4 hours flight time of his base) and commute, in which case he gets space positive to work...and duty starts at check-in for the commute. The pilot will need to non-rev home.

OR

2) Live in domicile...in this case he gets the federal civil service locality pay adjustment (based on $42K) for that area. This will ensure that he can afford an adequate lifestyle in domicile.

There would be no minimum for CA's...it would be the same as for FO's. The point here is not to create a mandated pilot pay-scale or break the bank at the regionals, but to ensure safety by preventing the very real finance-induced lifestyle stresses many regional pilots experience.

The fringe benefit would be the attraction of higher-quality pilots candidates to the industry...good for safety and operational efficiency.

Note that I am NOT advocating paying regional FO's the same as military officers, only using part of the military compensation package as a standard baseline. All you guys reading this from the sandbox can calm down