It's possible but you have to be crazy and get lucky. I met a guy at Skywest who made 35k on first year pay. Skywest is only $22/hour and they don't have per diem in initial training. He showed me his pay stub to prove it. He was a commuter who was picking up flying all over the system. He'd pick up anything high credit he could find regardless of the domicile and commute there for the trip. To make 35k at that pay rate I'm pretty sure he was never actually at home.

You know what's funny about all this. I was talking to a Jazz pilot the other day, they were complaining because first year pay is 55K. Worldwide regional flying first year is roughly the same or better. I have a friend at Arik Air flying a dash8 as an F/O making 85k a year.
you guys bicker about who made 35k or who's regional is the best, who cares?!

55k? Did you ask him how much of that goes to taxes in Canadia?

A quick Google search shows he paid about 15%. The total tax bill at the end of the year is probably less than someone living in the state of CA. Are you trying to say a regional pilot here making 30k has it better than a pilot making 55k in Canada? If so it looks like you are wrong.

Not only is 14 days off completely within the realm of possibility, It's not even hard to do. I'm at 18 days off with almost 90 hours for May right now and the open time just started 2 days ago.

Our scheduling language allows us to get premium pay for an entire trip without losing days off. With our SAP people are generally getting 17-19 days off depending on how productive your trips are.

That 15% is probably only for "federal" income taxes. They also probbaly pay close to 10 more % for "state" taxes and they have to pay for healthcare.

I thought I remembered hearing once that you could expect 35-40% of your check to be taken.

No you can't drop below 65 hours. But since youre trading in the sap, you can dump all your inefficient trips for high credit efficient ones. You can easily squeeze 65 hours into 2 four days and 1 three day trips. Then you can have the rest of the days off, or pick flying back up at premium pay if you like.

Probably less than what goes to health insurance in this country.

Not as much as you'd think.
The US/Canada take-home pay disparity is largely based on widespread misinformation. It's not as simple as it may seem. Yes, you might see 35-40% of your check go away... but that's just because your math isn't shown if you live in the US.

Add in employer-paid health insurance as a tax, your portion of health insurance, your payroll taxes you don't see, and the numbers come out pretty close, and sometimes in favor of the Canadians.

I get the impression that it would be a lot smarter to work outside the U.S...

I'm studying for my ATP written right now so that I can apply to a U.S. regional, but I have this nagging thought that goes like this: "Why would you work your ass off and commute for $20,000 a year? What if you are stuck commuting for reserve to a city you don't live in? Are you an idiot?!"

I also feel like it might be smart to wait until after July when more regionals are parking airplanes and they get desperate and have to raise first-year pay... Or are they not financially able to raise first year pay? Or would it cut into their bottom line deep enough that it would actually be most cost effective/profitable to park those planes instead of paying first-year guys more?

And I do understand the math that makes it so that flying airplanes with 50 or 70 seats instead of 150 seats makes it impossible for a regional to match 737 pay...

Can we go fly in Europe or West Africa (Arik Air) with an FAA Commercial certificate? I'm ready to go!

I'm just about to send my last student to checkride and I have 2120/480 multi.