I rode the jumpseat yesetrday with a senior US Airways pilot. He mentioned that while cleaning out his attic last weekend he found a pay stub from 1987. 18 years later he now makes $2.00 less an hour. Less as a Senior Captain, than he did as a Junior FO. And the loss of pension, benefits, and work rules makes the job almost unrecognizable from what it was then.

Greedy pilots have something to do with this?

The Dow Jones topped 2000 for the first time in 1987. The other day it topped 12000. (1)

The consumer price index in Jan 1987 was 333.1; in Jan 2006 593.9. (2)

Real wages for this pilot are down by half, while stocks are up six fold.

In 1987 the average CEO made 71 times the rate of the average employee. In 2004, the average CEO made 240 times the rate of the average employee. (3)



No, I'm pretty sure that pilot greed has nothing whatsoever to do with Airline Corperation problems.


(1) http://www.mdleasing.com/djia.htm
(2) http://www.bls.gov/ro9/9211.pdf
(3) http://www.americanprogress.org/kf/ceo_pay_web_final.pdf