I have a radical idea about pilot pay and I wanted to see what everyone thought about it. This is a rough idea but I am sure you guy's will add to it if you think it might work.

Each pilot would get paid based off of a ticket surcharge. Lets say $2 per passenger per leg for First Officers and $3 per leg for Captains. We could change the dollar about to whatever we and the company deem is fair. Five dollars per pax per leg for pilot wages. After doing the math maybe it should be 5 for FO's and 7 for CA per leg.
Their would need to be a minimum pay per day of reserve lets say $150 plus whatever you make per leg of flying.
I guess their would have to be a domestic charge and a higher charge for international flight since they don't fly as many legs per month.

Positives
The public will not think we are grossly over paid. ( if they only knew the truth)
I don't think any passenger would have a problem with paying $5 per leg or $12 per leg.
If Planes are full we make good money if their not we help the company out in hard times.
Levels the paying field from airline to airline with regard to pay.
You don't have to climb the pyramid of pay.
Airlines can compete by increasing customer service instead of cutting our pay to lower ticket prices.
We don't have to wait 15 years plus several different airline to make a fair wage.
No regionals vs Majors just routes and planes.
Old guys would not necessarily have to fly long hall flights to make the big dollars.

Negatives
You guys can tell me.

Examples

30 passengers

60 per leg FO's
90 per leg CA's

4 legs per day
$240 FO's
$360 CA's

15 day month
$3600 FO's
$5400 CA's

40 Passengers
80 per leg FO's
120 per leg CA's

4 legs per day
$320 FO's
480 CA's

15 Day Month
$4800 FO's
$7200 CA's

150 passengers
$300 per leg FO's
450 per leg CA's

3 legs per day
$900 FO's
$1350 CA's

15 day month
$13,500 FO's
$20,250 CA's

Per Seat instead of per passenger per leg would be a better idea

How about this, 1 passenger...50 seat airplane...4 hour leg.

Or

zero passengers on a mx repo..

Way to complicated...

You can keep the current payrates, but pay me by DUTY HOUR! That way I can actually make a living and afford to eat, and it would put an end to unproductive trips and 3 hr. airport sits.

I thought about that but in down times companies need to cut cost if it is by passengers they can control cost on a day to day basis which will hopefully allow them to make money.

but your idea is good to but do they come to us for pay cuts when seat demand is low?

So you really think that a pilot flying 30 pax is worth less than a pilot flying 150 or 300+ pax? I disagree with you on that point. Lets rather start a payscale based on experience than on how many pax a company has on a specific plane. We go through the same training (well, as international heavy ac pilot we actually have an extra training day every six months.... big deal...), therefore the pay should be the same. This works with a few airlines here in the US and many overseas. The ability to fly international is something few can can do comfortably, and I much rather see the guys that have families to take care of stay closer to home and have more layovers in base than hunting for the mighty dollar by bidding flights and ac's that could, and has many times over, destroyed their family's life due to the fact that they might make a few more $$$'s. Personally I am one of the few guys that love the international flying but I fly with a lot of folks that would be a lot better off staying closer to home. So rethink your payscales and come up with something that would increase the QOL for the most of us.

(just my opinion of course..)

I don't think this is a good idea surgeons and dentist get paid by the job because the are providing a skill.

We should charge for our skills not our time.

Hell, we should all be independent contractors. That way we can negotiate our own pay rates instead of relying on ALPA to screw us.....

I disagree, I should get paid when I do the walkaround, preflight, calculating weight & balance, programing FMS, etc.

Pilots are pilots window heat pitot heat what's to eat. I wish that a 50 seat pilot could make the same as a 747 pilot but that would be to socialist for me. But if i think of a good idea how to pay for experience i will post it for the sake of a argument. A 747 generates more money for the company than a RJ so a pilot can fly one leg or several legs on a smaller jet to get paid a similar amount of money.