Originally Posted by
SkyHigh
Again it is important to compare apples to apples. Most regional airline jobs are located in urban areas. The government website has some numbers that are misleading. It takes into consideration every firefighter and police job both rural and city. In my small town 100 miles from Seattle civil servants earn perhaps half of what their urban counterparts make.
Here is a starting wage for Montclair California police job.
$4,451 - $5,410
($4,239/mo. salary while enrolled in the 20-week Police Academy)
City Pays 9% of Employees' Portion of 3% at 55 PERS Contribution
Here is firefighter pay off the city of Los Angeles web Site:
Starting salary $46,729 - $64,686
BENEFITS
Thirteen paid holidays per year.
Sixteen days paid vacation to start.
Family health and dental coverage.
Pension plan
In addition I had a conversation about an hour ago with a plumber at one of my job sites. He told me that after three years as an apprentice a fully licensed plumber earns 50-60K in residential and 60-70K commercial as a Non-union employee. In addition they have the ability to start their own company and earn much more.
In any case it sure beats four years in college to be followed by years of slave wages before finally reaching plumber wages in your mid-30's
SkyHigh
We are comparing Apples to Apples. The Country-Wide Average pay for each profession. You can pick and choose which Department and which Airline, and which city till the cows come home, but in the end, by doing that you are skewing the numbers to either side.
The only true, fair, gauge of who earns what is by the Country-Wide Average Pay. I am not saying that Pilots make what they should, I feel they are underpaid, however the numbers you have presented are very skewed, a true representation would be by a National Average.
As far as plumbers go, here is what the make on average:
[I]n May 2004, median hourly earnings of plumbers, pipefitters, and steamfitters were $19.85.
That is about equal to what starting Regional FOs make, however when you become a plumber you must first start off as an apprentice first.
Apprentices make about 50% of that hourly earning, making it around $9.93 an hour. So the start off pay for a Regional FO is better than that of an Apprentice Plumber, and equal to the Average Plumber Wage.
Plumbers may make more in a year, mainly because they work more "paying hours" than a Regional FO would make.