Originally Posted by
robthree
But at that time he didn't.
He had the same experience and skill as a guy graduating from Po Dunk County Directional Junior Technical Community College.
As a coffer-fetcher he made more than the most senior FO at any regional airline.
Next week he moves to California, to become a rocket scientist, and will make more than the most senior Captain at any regional airline. Before he ever does any actual work, he has earned that as starting pay.
And he has earned it.
But so have I.
I have a "skill that MOST PEOPLE cant/wont apply themselves to obtain." Only about 1 in 500 Americans are licensed pilots. Only about 10% of those are professional pilots. Sure, we know this stuff isn't rocket science. But its no walk in the park either. I fly to Nantucket in C402s, so my passengers get to watch what I do every minute. This week has been a typical one for the Cape and Islands, 4000 RVR was the easiest approach I did. And every flight, every day, they tell me that they're amazed that we find the airport in the soup, every time. But that's what we do.
We sell ourselves short every day. This job is not easy. Not everyone can do it. Those of us who are doing it deserve to be well compensated for our considerable skills.
Even the 300 hour wonder pilots, because they too are doing the job.
More people have the ability to be pilots than to be aerospace engineers, BY FAR.
So do you consider a 300 hour pilot equal to a 3,000 hour guy with 135 single pilot IFR experience??? If you do you agree with the airlines...The airlines are not going to pay the less experienced guy more money...they are going to pay the MORE EXPERIENCED guy LESS money. So regional airlines have come up with the 2 simple ideas,
***Supply and demand...supply is up, demand is down, so they can choose what criteria they want...and they want the cheapest.
*** The have also developed a game plan:
Less Experience cannot equal more pay, so more experience equals less pay by default.
In this case if you complain you must blame the players (The pilots), and if you accept it you say blame the game not the player.