The thing with the median is NONE of the other numbers matter. All that the median is, is the middle term, so they would have taken x pilots salaries and the median is simply the middle guys salary. None of the other salaries matter when computing the median. The median is used to minimize those extreame variates such as the 747 captain pay and a 1900 fo pay.
Medians are commonly used in per capita income studies and salary studies to minimize the effect of the few highly paid people. The mean will always be higher then the median in these cases.
Im going to ask my statistics proffesor tommorow about this and see what he says.

Either way pilots is one of the highest paid proffesion there is. The majority of Americans make about $40,000 approximatly.

Another note on pay. Be glad it isnt like canada where the guys that throw the bags around make more then most the regional pilots.
Or how the flight attendents sued AirCanada saying that flight attendents deserve the same pay as the pilots. They claimed FA's were payed less because they were mostly women while the pilots were mostly men. Sadly the court sided with the FA's..... however that was like 6 months ago and havnt heard anything since.

That can't be true. If it is true, it's the stupidestest law suit ever.

You said it yourself, flying is a PROFESSION, not a job. You can't compare our pay to janitors, clerks, and factory workers. The vast majority of professional what-evers make way more than $40K.

I can guarantee you that the mean in this case is NOT greater than the median...there are FAR more regional FO's than international wide-body captains, I would guess 100 to 1.

How'd you do in stats?

By my estimation:

The LOWEST paid pilots make maybe 100k less than the median (only 35k).

The HIGHEST paid pilots make more than 165k more than the median (>$300k although we've all heard of the workaholics who make more like $400k).

Since there's an equal number above and below the median number, you want to revise your "guarantee" of the median?

What world are you in? We have an exemption that allows us to fly 1400 hours a year as a 121 airline since we are in Alaska. If I flew every one of those hours I'd still make less than $30k a year. We don't have a guarantee, I think big sky's guarantee is like $18k a year.

Check out the youtube video "so you want to be a regional airline pilot" for some numbers on starting pay at a lot of these places. Sure if you average out between F/Os and captains you might get that number, but you aren't averaging out to get the $300k number either.

And there are NOT very many 300k guys at all. There are a whole lot more regional pilots than high paid majors pilots... and I would venture that there are probobly more regional pilots than major pilots overall anyway.


I'll take you up on your "guarantee" challenge and say that I think he's spot on.

BTW, first year pay at Alaska airlines is around $35k.

I love it. Even when Delta was paying the highest rates in the industry, I never reached that median flying the median aircraft, the MD80, on the property. The company claimed, to the public,a number in the vicinity of 150K for a Delta pilot while we were negotiating the latest of concessionary contracts.

I would like to meet both these pilots so that I my become their bidding student.

Especially after writing that alimony check each month. :eek: :D

When I was hired at Continental Express the new hire flight attendants made more than the new hire FO's. The FO's complained, so the company lower the FA's pay! Woops. That was in the mid '90's. It's different now.

I also made $26/hr to fly a 64 seat ATR-72. That's CAPTAIN pay. :mad: