As for pay for Doctors...often pilots compare our wages to those of doctors, and show the general ignorance towards that profession that everyone shows towards ours. While I myself do not have the entire picture, let me paint a more complete picture for us to compare ourselves to. The pedestal isn't all that high. A medical student, having gone through 4 years of undergraduate education, and possibly additional post grad work, must then drop about 100k on med school. After that, they then work as a resident for 3 to 10 years depending on their specialty. Pay during this period ranges from 38k to 48k, requires an average of 70-80 hours per week with one or more sjifts per week in excess of 24 hours (and no minimum rest rules to protect them, or hotel beds, or per diem). Upon completion of residency most doctors will find salaries of about 100k to 180k. They run the risk of losing their job as much as we do, but they have one other catch that we don't have. Malpractice insurance is rising rapidly. An OB/GYN must pay upwards of 70k per year to protect themselves from inevitable lawsuits. Take that 70 away from a taxed 150, and you are left with an amount on par with a 5th year regional captain. And that is after 5 years in the field, including residency. So are they really ahead of us? Not really. And with insurance companies pressing hard for reduced rates, doctors are seeing a wage pinch all their own. Sure, there are senior doctors, and elite surgical specialty doctors who are making 300-600k, but they are certainly not the norm. They are aviations FedEx'ers...years of odd hours and rough family life.
In short....Our dilemma is not as bad as we think. Wages are going down, but 75k a year as a regional captain or legacy FO is still livable, still beyond my parents greatest combined income. Lets fight to keep our wages from sliding too far, but appreciate what we still have