after a certain point of competence, that’s correct.


because that’s the way it has always been done.


you’re so close to getting why we wouldn’t have any leverage.

Absolutely. It's the exact same job. This is how the world works outside of the airline industry. I have non-aviation friends that will quit a multi-six figure job without thinking twice knowing they will get another one doing the same thing.

it's the same reason that software engineers get paid so much. They are rare to find and it takes lots of work to become one. So the scarcity of supply of qualified individuals that drives the leverage/pay. It's not the type of profession.

your friends aren’t interchangeable widgets in their industries.

pilots are interchangeable widgets.

If scarcity of pilots made them valuable, why do RJ pilots make so little? We aren’t scarce, our skills aren’t constantly growing in a way that produces revenue, and we are interchangeable.

Because people are willing to devalue their worth in exchange for experience so they can then use that experience to attain higher paying jobs that demand more experience. Just as it happens in every industry. As I have said CA or FO is just an arbitrary title at your company. The longer you have done "x" the more experience you have and thus the more compensation you should have.

experience doesn’t attain you a higher paying job in aviation. Longevity does.

Let's see at 250 hrs you can fly people, at 500 hrs you can do day VFR 135, at 1200hrs you can fly 135 operations, at 1500 hrs you can fly for a 121 airline, at 1000hrs 121 experience you can be a CA. So yes each of those jobs pays more than the other. And each one requires more experience. So your argument is invalid.

To add onto that most regional airlines will hire you at 1500hrs but unless you are military no major airline will touch you. So you build experience or as we call it flight time. Once you are competitive you can interview with a major airline and then make even more $.

This whole discussion is just dumb, and horribly off topic.

Do you folks have a side bet to see how many posts you can drift a thread(s) or something?

Do you think a pilot with 10000 TPIC would garner a larger paycheck than someone with 5000tpic when applying for, say, a 737 captain spot in your negotiated scenario?