raising the minimum requirements wont change the pay. 10-15 years ago you needed 2500TT to even get looked to fly right seat in a Beech 1900. Guess what there was no shortage of applicants and the pay still sucked.

Maybe im being silly but what is stopping most pilots in ALPA from starting an industry wide strike to increase pay? Im not 121 yet so i dont know all the reasoning forgive my ignorance.

Railway Labor Act

That's exactly the point. If the airlines cannot find enough qualified applicants that meet the 1,500 hour law, they will have to make changes in order to attract qualified applicants. Pay would be one of those changes. Pay goes up, more students may be willing to walk the path. The happy little cycle continues.

I really don't see any downside to this law passing, other than a bunch of flight school kids getting whiny about 'how hard it will be' and how they 'deserve a job right out of school'... but talking about the 'generation of entitlement' is for another discussion.

The RLA... if we could get out of that, pilots would probably have more leverage.

EDIT: Sorry flynwmn, you beat me to it!

Hmm i just read about the RLA

It says major strikes are only allowed when all other methods of dispute have been exhausted. And you may only strike on a large scale when you are striking to resolve a major issue.

The RLA seems to have a lot of loose ends :p

My understanding was the whole thing about the bill was to increase the SAFETY on air transport, not the pilot pay. The problem I have with the bill is look at the past major crashes by regionals... did any of them have pilots with less than 1500 hours when they crashed? Yes they got hired with less than that, but once they got 1500 hours, they could have been hired.

If we REALLY want to see pilot pay increase, I would love to see a 4 year degree in aviation, management, or aerospace e. Airlines should also look at activities outside of aviation, volunteer programs/community involvement, and college grades. These are the requirements for just about ANY PROFESSIONAL entry level job.

A garbage man or bus driver just is looked at to see if they can pass the training, then they get trained and payed 20-30k. That's all aviation is now. Can you pass the training? Good, pass it and collect your minimum wage.

However, why would any airline want to require a 4 year degree/1500 hours/volunteering? That means they WOULD have to pay more and why on gods green earth would they want THAT when they are happily paying pilot's nothing!

Disclaimer: I support the ATP rule even though I am a lowly CFI with only 500 hours. I humbly respect everyone who has gotten where they are regardless of their experience and just because our jobs may not be PERCEIVED as professional (argument above), I know everyone here IS. No flame bait, trolling or disrespect in anyway meant.

Careful! I live with a arch grad student and if you told him the perception is archs make 200k out the door, you would have a straight edge to dig out of your skull. It's funny the misconceptions about careers. People think pilot's make 100k out the door and architects make 200k. He said (this is after 5 years of arch undergrad and grad school) in the first 3-5 years expect to make below 40k. Not until your signature goes on the designs do you make more. Hmm, sounds a like aviation, especially right seat vs left seat. I may have just disproved my entire argument above. Your post was made while I was typing the first part. Doggonit.

You're forgetting one thing.., that was back then, when paying dues meant something because something good was waiting for you at the end. No one in their right mind would chase this bus driver job now unless there is significant improvement in everything. Raising mins will only help against past company tactics of hiring SJS labor. You can't blame the low timers we all would do the same if an RJ is dangled in front of us, but we can take away the ability of companies to be able to hire them in an effort to keep wages low. There needs to be a level of respect and sense of worth that management has to feel in order for us to be taken seriously at the negotiating table.

If your aircraft says Express, Connection, Link, Eagle, ect., on the side, your company will have to bid on that flying. Capitalism dictates the lowest bidder will get the contract, so your company had better be VERY competitive in today's market economy. So long as another company will underbid your company, the pay will not go up. Sorry.

The RLA is a complete disaster for us. I am surprised there hasn't been an uprising. What profession do you know of where you're paid less than what someone in the same position made 20 years ago? The RLA assures that.