CANAM

I'm gonna start calling the CRJ900 as the 9000, just to upset everybody. Alright, chill out, it's just a joke.

BoilerUP

I call it the MD-900...

or the Montreal Monster Tube...

or the Super Stretched Challenger XR...

or how just about "regional jet".

FlyByCable

That's still way more than most people make in this country.

BoilerUP

Most people in this country don't fly airplanes for a living.

FlyByCable

And most people work a LOT harder than we do for LESS money.

kremit14

sounds like a scab in the makeing

BoilerUP

Very true...the same is said of any classic "profession", including medical, legal, engineering, financial, etc.

My father is a construction equipment mechanic. The man works six and sometime seven day 80+ hour weeks for 7-8 months of the year, and barely scrapes 40 hour weeks the other four. He works outside, in the hot/cold/rain/mud/dust. To say he busts his arse to earn his living would be a gross understatement.

He told me a LONG time ago: "Son, get paid for what you know, not what you do...you'll make more money and have a better life that way."

He had a point...

(and this flame is TERRIBLE)

makersmarc

..and see their families, and sleep in their own bed at night, and have semi-predictable schedules, and don't play "You Bet Your Job" twice a year, and get the rubber glove treatment every six months (that includes job jeopardy) and eat at home EVERY DAY, and don't put their lives in the hands of minimum wage van drivers, and get whatever good or bad news from home first hand instead of over the telephone untold thousands of miles away, and on and on et cetera ad nauseum.

Everyone has their own brand of suffering. Our jobs pay just enough to keep the help around for one more day.

Tinpusher007

Oh c'mon! Lets be honest. No one is saying that the work we do is unimportant or something that just anyone can do. But lets not make brain surgery out of managing a flight deck. When things are going as they're supposed to which is 99% of the time, the job is not difficult. And thats the way want we want things to be for our safety and for the safety of our paying pax. That is also the reason that we should be paid a far wage, which isn't the case, I will grant you. But if you are coming from the perspective that flying an RJ is difficult and stressful to you, than maybe this isn't the right line of work for you.

And my opinion on the matter does NOT make me a scab, nor am I one of the reasons this profession is going down the tubes, blah blah blah. Think about it though, if our jobs were extremely difficult they probably wouldn't be very safe. Its not so much about the level of difficulty in performing the job that warrants the pay. Its about the service that we provide, the level of training required and the standards and federal regulations thats we are held to. Literally all of that rests on the shoulders of the person with the four stripes with the first officer as a required crew member as well. Thats why we should be paid more than 20K to fly "small jets". Not because its so difficult to make the plane do what you want...autopilot or not.

Think about it, do you pay your CPA to count on his fingers or do math in his head? No. You pay him/her to use whatever legal and expedient method possible (read computer/calculator) to help you keep most of your money in your own pocket instead of the govt's.

GoBlue

You earn your money in the 1% that is not normal.