You do not have to identify safety pilot time as such, but most people do. It would kind of stick out though because you probably didn't log any landings as S/P! The guy under the hood has to log the safety pilot's name, but not vice versa. An employer would probably consider it dishonest not to identify S/P time as such. However, most employers will give you credit for safety pilot time so there's probably no reason to cover it up.

Quite honestly I don't think anybody gives a rip, if you go to a regional with a thousand hours in your log book and 200 in the multi column Nobody and I mean Nobody is going to sit there and decide what was logged as 1.1 PIC.

When you go to your next job the only thing that is going to matter is how much time you put in Part 121. They are not going to care if you logged time going to the McDonalds when you were in flight school.

I went to a pilot mill for my instrument and while building X C time we would log saftey pilot again for only the time we were safety pilot, so if the leg was 1.9 we would usually make it simple and knock off .3. That was consevative but who cared if we cheated ourselves out of the .1.

We always logged it SP for the put the persons name next too it. Do not log the landing, but the 1.7 counts for PIC this will be important if you have the opportunity to fly 135 with only 1200 hours. I believe you need 500 PIC, and nobody is going to care where you got it. It will also be helpful if you are in a position to need an ATP at 1500 hours. There are a lot of guys who get burned on this too late and that much time is hard to cram.

250 hours PIC (including some x-c and night PIC time).

In fact this is exacty the purpose of 14 CFR part 61.51(e). It's there to allow the logging of PIC time for advanced certificates, specifically the commercial and ATP. In fact, 61.51(e)(1) states right in the beginning "...A recreational, private, or commercial pilot may log pilot-in-command time only...". If you have an ATP, you are not allowed to log PIC time as "sole manipulator", unless of course you are designated PIC as defined under Part 1.1.

Majors will. And even regionals do...at least as far as to be sure you'll meet the ATP requirements of 61.159... i.e. the 250 hours of flight time in an airplane as PIC (including 100 hours x-c PIC time and 25 hours of PIC night, or any of the related credits to those times). We want to make sure you will meet the ATP requirements when you upgrade, with just SIC time going forward. We are not really interested in having you have to run out right before upgrade and buy 50 hours of C-152 time just to meet ATP mins. It has happened...

But you are right. It's about the only thing we check for. CFI's are usually no problem. Where we run into this problem is with the guy who got "lucky" and ended up with a right seat job somewhere as a wet-ticket Commercial pilot.

Another Scenario
 

As a new CFI I have one question about that if someone asks me to come along on a flight for an extra set of eyes and ears and they are a private pilot or commercial pilot can I log that as dual given and pic? Mainly because I think if something were to happen and I didnt try to correct the problem or let it happen being a CFI and holding a higher certificate then the PPL or the CPL the FAA would fault me somehow. So in that case I think I should be able to log PIC and Dual given even if it was just a short cross country and me just being an extra set of eyes.

If you are "just along for the ride" the FAA will hold you responsible as the most qualified pilot present even if you decide in advance that the other guy is the PIC. If you want to avoid that, have a beer before you go.

You should be able to log it as dual-given under the auspices of an area or route familiarization flight. However, you cannot do this on a repetetive basis with the same "student". The FAA wants dual-given to be for legitimate training purposes, not CFI time building.

If you want to do repetive flying with someone, do so as their hired commercial pilot...YOU are the PIC, and they get to manipulate the controls for fun.