SKW FO pay is typically about 60% of CA pay (except first year of course).

They have to be PIC types now days.

Along with the already mentioned factors, it is management's (supported by your union) tactic to make sure you are enslaved to the company...
It make it much more difficult to jump between airlines. Most of the people I know are discouraged to change airline because they don't want to start at year 1 pay again (sub-livable wages)!

The entire commuter pay scale is a joke in its execution. I'm glad more people are asking the question. Pay needs to come up at the bottom and down at the top. To ease the transition just have a track system, track one would be current pay scales track two would be the new hire pay scales. Much higher FO pay but capped CA pay.

The current airline pay structure, across the board, is very anti-union like. There is no "we're all in this together", it's more about the senior guys getting everything and those below them getting the shaft.

In the words of Archer, WORDING!
http://memegenerator.net/instance/48183999

^^^this^^^

Long ago senior pilots negotiated away first year pay for something else in exchange. Maybe we all have better soft language because of it?

Seriously? There are no pilots at any regional in this country whose pay "needs to come down"! There is no such thing as an overpaid regional airline pilot.... Please stop trying to sell this profession out, thanks.

Cause alpa sucks. I think that phrase could answer most questions on these forums.

Now that you've vented let's look at an example. My commuter is around $100/hr for senior CA, but FO pay is capped at $45-ish an hour.

The latest contract voted on at RAH had senior CA's getting fairly large raises, something like $130/hr top out. At 60% pay (a BS differential IMO, should be 80% if not more) the FO's should be making roughly $70/hr. Yet the top out was the same, $45-ish an hour.

Now, I would agree, if you can raise FO pay $30/hr without impacting CA pay go for it, but quite frankly that is unreasonable and doubtful any pilot group would get released for demands like that. Just not realistic. Not only that, but highly doubtful a negotiating committee run by CA's 90% of the time will ever vote for a pay schedule like that unless they aren't effected, ie the track system.

The solution is to cap CA pay, bring it down, and raise FO pay, to make it more in line with what a professional should be getting paid. Also reduce the ridiculous 18 year longevity scale and bring it down to a 5 year scale.

UPS was the only company in recent past that did this. Come contract time the CA's got minimal raises because the FO's were going to be FO's for a long time, and they knew that, so they gave the lions share of the gains to the FOs. It was admirable.

Comair told me that it cost them $55,000 to put a guy through school. Pretty sure that was an all exclusive number. Not an excuse for first year pay. Just throwing it out there.