machz990

Well I'm sitting in SFO this morning reading the daily rag and one of the lead stories is the new pay raises for SFO cops. Pay went from $91,000 to $113,000 with new recruits starting at $82,000. The article says this pay increase aligns their pay with other cities in CA. And get this.........they are understaffed by 600! Now I'm not slamming the law enforcement profession but rather the errosion of our profession. While our compensation stagnates year over year other professions are rapidly catching up. Many semi-truck drivers are making over $100K per year now.

Let's look at two career paths. Ours starting with a college degree and, as we all know, the many hours afterwards building our resumes with aviation experience to get hired at a major. Another path is get a HS diploma (GED is fine), join the military as an E-1 and go into security. After 4 years you can get the job above in SFO (they are actively recruiting according to the paper). Or you can join the reserves and get the training, become a weekend warrior and take the SFO job after about 3-4 months in the military. $82K to start for a 18-20 year old high school grad is not bad.

Or you can go on to college, get the sheepskin and then fly for a commuter for a few years making far inferior wages with hopes of being hired at a major. Not to mention the pay at the majors has been cut by 30% or more with 50% more realistic due to seat regression.

I'm also starting to see this trend in the medical profession. Many General Family Practitioners working for HMO's are making only around $109K for a national average according to a recent USA job survey.

Doctors are another white collar labor force and seen by company execs as strictly that. Executive pay continues to climb like a jet on afterburner while skilled and once sought after professions see their compensation and lifestyle eroding away.

Just throwing this out as a catalyst for discussion.

MX727

Supply and demand. No one wants to be a cop and deal with the crap they face.

Too many in our profession will fly for free. Most of us have probably said those very words after an especially beautiful sunrise.

DinoJet727

I agree with MX. Completely supply and demand. Sometimes it's hard to figure out the reasoning behind where the money goes. In the area where my wife is from, a semi-small town, you can't hire anyone to work for you (at least someone worth hiring) at the grocery store, Hardee's or the gas station unless you offer $10.00/hour. It's just more expensive to live in that isolated area. Minimum wage is not a factor for them. This in a state that has an excellent educational system and is one of the largest producers of teachers in the nation, yet they vote down a bill that would raise the minimum starting salary for in-state teachers to a wopping $29k/yr. I believe my brother-in-law started at $24k and in doing the math with round numbers equates to about $11.50/hr. Pitiful.

jonnyjetprop

I think the other point that gets lost is that SFO is a very high cost of living city. The pay reflects this. Airline jobs have never reflected these types of costs.

Spartan07

That is why California departments pay what seems to be so much. Southern California you can -expect- 50k a year at least. Why? Their benefits while decent are nothing to brag about. The cost of living is insance. Oh, and not to mention California police officers (For the most part mind you) have to deal with more S than most of their brothers in blue.

Now here is food for thought, look at the pay for ANY PD in the rest of the country. I gurantee the average is pretty pitiful. Especially if you look at Oklahoma Dpts (Tulsa PD requires a 4 year degree and starts at 36k per year, going up from there). Or here is a better one, look at NYPD. Considering the cost of living they almost have to pay to be cops.

Not to beat a dead horse but I think Officers, Teachers, Firefighters etc. probably SHOULD make a good living. Just for the little fact that they serve and protect us.

But point taken, Pilots should be paid more starting out.

Whistlin' Dan

Realistically, how much college is required to fly a transport-category aircraft? By that I mean, "How much college is required to DO the job," not "GET the job"

I'm guessing around 60 semester-hours, with a little over half of that spent in core subjects, the rest in lab.

Once the military has applied a little judicious "pre-screening," they can take a person who's only experience at operating a moving vehicle has been delivering pizzas, and turn him into an F-18 pilot (or C-17 co-pilot) in just a little over a year. Granted, for those selected, it's an intense year of drills and learning. But some of what they learn is specific to the military, and has little or no application to civilian flying. That "year" spent in UPT also includes flight training, which is somewhat analogous to a lab course (college) or hands-on training (vocational school).

One year, maybe a little more. That's about how long it takes an automobile mechanic to achieve his ASC Certification, or the girl who cuts your hair to receive her beauticians license. One year is only about half the time it took my neighbor to become a Registered Nurse, or to accrue 60 semester hours of college credit.

I know an A&P who went to Northrop for his training. He was in class or lab full-time for 58 weeks getting his licenses, and now makes a little over $20/hr. Think about that the next time you're sitting on the ramp at PHX in an air-conditioned cockpit while he's changing a brake, or chasing an errant spark out of your electronics rack at 3 A.M..

I'm all in favor of pilots making more money. I think we should all get a bazillion dollars a year and free you-know-whats on layovers. But if you look at what the technical and educational requirements of our job are, and compare them to the physical demands and occupational risks of some of those you've mentioned, you might come to the conclusion that we're not so badly compensated after all.

I wonder if my A&P knows about those cop-jobs in SFO?