Pilot Pay
Somewhere in the throws of the 140+ post thread ... someone/someones was/were making comparisons to doctors/lawdogs, etc & made a comment to the effect no other profession/occupation allows for pilot pay, even today's pilot pay.
Well, JB Hunt begs to differ. 12 months of over-the-road driving has one making as much as this "legacy" FO. GED-only.
I know of two different couples who own their own/two Chicken Express fast food joints. They are earning 150K/year.
Both of these two different jobs require LOTS of time to be put in to make the advertised money ... but the fact is they do not require the schooling & they do not have the responsibility anywhere NEAR that of an airline pilot or mechanic.
Those dozer/track hoe operators we see at the airports are earning as much as any legacy FO. Heck, I had a friend of mine who ownes/operates an excavation business do a little "grubbing" for me on my small place. He paid his newhire well enough to put him w/in 20% of my W2! ... again, he's spending 10-12 hours on that dozer/day, but he can get it! (my buddy charged me cost for the dozer)
You apologists on here who suggest 65 CA/45 FO are looney tunes.
The profession has already watered down to the point the "top end" "regionals" (American Eagle, et al) are having to take the 300/1 wonders b/c their pay is so paultry & the 'payoff' is hardly what it was --- or should be.
AE has now become the first rung on the professional pilot ladder rather than the last before steppin on the roof (major carrier).
Maybe this profession is going the way of the Stagecoach driver, too. Maybe the system is going to become so "idiot" proof that we really will be able to put dogs/monkeys in the cockpits.
I don't think that will last very long ... but then again, there's always been a concerted effort to press labor wages down.
Al