Originally Posted by
bryris
Beginning FO pay has been beginning FO pay for a long time. LOOOOWWW! There were no surprises going into this. I agree that pay is too low. But for those embarrassed about getting money wired to them from mother, that is a financial planning problem on your part. I can tell my new students just starting out with lesson #1 what their first year FO pay will be. Planning for it is key.
Correct, it has been low for many years and it has kept getting lower. But it doesn't have to stay that way. Five years ago the threat of bankruptcy by management was a tactic used to sustainably lower wages and increase profit margins for there big bonus checks as well as the shareholders, with no language written in there to one day restore what once used to be part of the career.
Now to specifically address what you wrote, how is one supposed to plan ahead when these concessions were decided upon by certain individuals in a union? One might have financially planned him or herself to survive paycheck to paycheck on the current wage, but then the concessions came in. And it looks like more may be coming with the attitude of certain individuals in this industry.
On a personal note, I just had a friend downgraded within the last year. 2nd year Captain back in the right seat. How was he supposed to financially plan himself? He went from $70,000, to $35,000. Show me an industry where a cut that drastic can occur. Someone mentioned in another thread that FO's should be paid 75% of a captain's salary. I think that is a very fair number.
If the numbers don't work, you ought to either work another job for an extra year and save or just find another job altogether.
Now this will put us back a little more on topic. Working another job for another year is more easily said than done. One year and the airlines may stop hiring..-it may be too late. Working another job while working for the airlines will leave you fatigued.. are you indeed supposed to be resting on your days off or working?
Finding another job altogether is what the best and the brightest are doing today, which is why were in this problem in the first place.
I've wrote it once, and I'll write it again. Together with the help of the government we can slowly begin to restore our profession to what it once used to be. We have a labor friendly administration. I urge everyone to
CALL there representatives and discuss this issue with one of there office workers. The more calls the more attention this will receive. Here is how:
In order to contact the office of your representative, call the White House switchboard at 202-224-3121 and request that office. Once connected, request to speak to someone in regards to the hearings in congress today on regional airline safety, and that you are a pilot. Make it known, that change must occur.