Airline Pilot pay justification
#51
Gets Weekend Reserve
Joined APC: Jul 2007
Posts: 3,615
I still am looking for an answer on this. Why should a Skywest, ASA, XJT, American Eagle, Comair, RAH, Colgan, Mesa, etc. who all pay less than $25/hr for new hires, why should these new hires be paid anymore than that?
Why should a Continental new hire on the 767 be paid more than the current $31/hr?
Why should a Continental new hire on the 767 be paid more than the current $31/hr?
A true professional can leave his job, take his skills and experience and apply it somewhere else without skipping a beat, and even get an immediate raise by switching jobs. In the US airline industry... good luck with that.
Forget your newhires for a moment. Let's talk about that 767 captain...
So let's say he/she doesn't like the idea of merging with UAL and wants nothing to do with the new company. Well... can't pack up and go to Delta because he'll have to go back to making first year FO pay. How can you call that pilot a professional? He can't take his skills and go elsewhere.
On the other hand, you can have a G-IV pilot who was working for $140,000/year for Brand X. Now, this pilot notices things aren't quite right at his work, so this pilot decides to take his skills to Brand Y and he's fortunate that they value his experience and they're willing to start him at $155,000/year.
Which one of these is your "professional?" Apples and oranges?
OK, let's use airline-to-airline.
We all know that Emirates is in a huge hiring drive. They need something like 800 pilots within a year. Unlike in the US, at Emirates, your first year, you will live rather nicely. You'll have your housing fully paid for, utilities covered, you will be driven to/from work by the company, you will get your retirement, and you'll get your salary which ends up just being your pocket cash which is a little over $7000/month.
Let's say you spent 10 years at Emirates. You're a B-777 captain with several thousand hours in type, but you decide you don't want to be in Dubai anymore. You want to try something else. So you apply to Korean Air. You're hired, and off you go. Sorry, no $31/hour and back to FO on something, and you have commuting schedules. Instead, say hello to another 6-digit salary right off the bat.
Korean not your cup of tea? Wanna be in Europe? OK, there's Turkish Airlines - part of Star Alliance. You're based in Istanbul. Oh no... no $31/hour and disregarding your experience there either.
Let's suppose you're an FO... you're not a captain. No sweat... again, no $31/hour for you.
To answer your question as to why should newhires be paid more than pittance... if you don't know the answer to this, then you shouldn't be.
As I said before, pilots are their own worst enemies, and as long as US pilots continue to remain oblivious to the rest of the world and choose to remain beaten down, with no sense of their self-worth, and severely lagging behind their counterparts worldwide, they deserve everything they get.
US airline pilots should be the world leaders in every meaning of the word. The only thing the US airline pilots have over the rest of the world is experience. Your average US pilot is way more experienced than his counterpart overseas, and that's huge... but that inexperienced overseas counterpart is paid substantially more than a US pilot. Now, I don't know about you, but I find that embarrassing.
Until your average US pilot realizes that.....
#52
Gets Weekends Off
Joined APC: Jul 2008
Position: CL-65 CA
Posts: 246
Here test you pilot pay justification, from what I heard about a decade ago Gordon "The Great" Bethune was in the CLE Coex crewroom and a lowly Beech 1900 FO walked up to him and asked do you think its right to pay us (1900 pilots) $1X per hour?
Bethune asked "why should I pay you more?"
and you say as a 19 seat 1900D FO, who paid $7500 for training, that you should be paid more because...
Bethune asked "why should I pay you more?"
and you say as a 19 seat 1900D FO, who paid $7500 for training, that you should be paid more because...
Money affects lifestyle, lifestyle affects safety,and pax like safety.
Thats what I think I would have said.
#53
If we want to attract the same caliber people to this profession that it has historically attracted, we are going to have to get the compensation back to what had been the norm for decades prior to the past few years. That will take care of the standards issue all by itself. But, in the meantime, I'm all for raising the standards too. Higher standards and higher compensation compliment each other.
#54
Reduced to begging?
Many pilots would consider tips an insult, because of the implication that passengers have the right to judge the quality of the pilot's work. Almost none of them are qualified to make such a judgment, even though they frequently do so. Besides, management and the IRS would start to include "imputed tip income" in our salaries, and act accordingly.
#55
Gets Weekends Off
Joined APC: Jun 2008
Posts: 155
In the last yr, I have been on buses, trains, ferrys, vans, limos, and yes, camels around the world. 9 out of 10 modes of transportation have a tip jar on them and a crew member holding a hat out when you get off it. Why can't we? I know it won't raise my pay $25k/yr but it'll buy the beer that night. Think about it, besides wal-mart and most other retail establishment, where DON'T you see a tip jar these days? You tip the cab/van driver on the way to the airport, the skycap, starbucks girl/waitress at the airport, why not the most important person on that trip, the pilot(s) that get you there?
There have been alot of good points brought up here, none is THE answer, rather many of them grouped together are a better answer to the problems we have today.
There have been alot of good points brought up here, none is THE answer, rather many of them grouped together are a better answer to the problems we have today.
A tip jar would be great. It would make the news the very day.
The union brass would be shamed though.
Other than that, we should consider the benefits of grasping the union concept.
#56
A true professional can leave his job, take his skills and experience and apply it somewhere else without skipping a beat, and even get an immediate raise by switching jobs.
In regard to tips, I have constantly heard pilots compare this profession to being a Doctor or a lawyer. Do you see a tip jar outside the OR? If you want to be paid like a Dr. or a Lawyer, quit and become one. Pilots are labor, you can only get paid what you can negotiate. Don't throw away your dignity for a lousy tip jar.
(I do agree in most cases that pilot pay needs to be improved)
#57
I hope they do. It will improve the profession as a whole if more pilots work to reach higher standards. Keep raising the bar until fewer pilots make it over. That's one way of impacting the supply side of the supply/demand curve. Newcomers will look at how hard it is to get into the profession and some won't even start down the path.
Having several thousand hours before you reach that 300 instrument time should tell you how ridiculous that requirement would be.
#58
Gets Weekend Reserve
Joined APC: Jul 2007
Posts: 3,615
What if I told you I was poached out of my last job with a very nice package and incentive to come on over as a captain on a large cabin bizjet? There ARE no certainties, you're right about that. However, in the US airline industry, it is ABSOLUTELY certain that you're going in as a first year FO making an insulting wage regardless of your experience.
#59
What if I told you I was poached out of my last job with a very nice package and incentive to come on over as a captain on a large cabin bizjet?
However, in the US airline industry, it is ABSOLUTELY certain that you're going in as a first year FO making an insulting wage regardless of your experience.
I think maybe I did not explain myself clearly enough. What I am saying is that in professional non-aviation jobs, you are not always going to get the same or better pay for moving to another job or losing the one you have. Ask any professional with a good bit of experience who was making great money and lost their job. Most of them are taking jobs way below their previous pay level if they can get a job at all.
#60
What I am saying is that in professional non-aviation jobs, you are not always going to get the same or better pay for moving to another job or losing the one you have. Ask any professional with a good bit of experience who was making great money and lost their job. Most of them are taking jobs way below their previous pay level if they can get a job at all.
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