No doubt you are correct, but that is an extremely short sighted decision. The first year goes by in a flash and those next couple years go a long way toward fixing the disparity between UPS and others.

I know that many have debt and existing obligations, but the first year was not near as bad as I thought it would be. We rented a small place while we house hunted, and it gave us an opportunity to kind of reign in our spending to see what was really important to us. It was actually a nice reset and made us appreciate the next couple of years more than I think we might have otherwise.

Not trying to be preachy, and again, not saying that everyone has this option, but first year pay wasn’t horrible for us and I hope it doesn’t really scare a lot of people away.

There is also no contribution to your 401k for the first year. And you're not eligible for the company stock discount purchase plan for the first six months.

I’m firmly in the camp that says first year pay needs to be fixed, and don’t at all buy into this “paying your dues” BS. People pay their dues before they get this job. I also say you’d be a fool to pass up UPS due to that first year pay. Due to life circumstances, me taking that pay cut was extremely difficult. It was so rough, the majority of people in my life advised me not to take the job at that time. Of course I did it anyway knowing what was coming on the back end. That year was awful in nearly every way, but is now a very distant memory. The pay, benefits, quality of life, etc FAR outweigh the difficulties of that first year. Hardly think about it anymore.

It would be nice if they brought up first year pay and reduced the probation period.

Everything seems so short staffed...and from what I understand no first year pilots touch open time or JA flying.

I talked with one who raided their 401k to make year one work

FWIW, it was brought up last contract. UPS has no interest in changing it.

Debt and golden handcuffs keep people from jumping to another carrier early in their UPS career. First year pay sucks, it needs to be changed but I’m not sure we will be willing spend negotiating capitol on that next contract.

First year pay hurts management’s ability to recruit pilots. A UPS pilot’s average yearly earnings aren’t hurt so much because our high rates for every other year skew the numbers dramatically. We would like first year pay to be higher. However, no one who votes on a contract is on first year pay. Ultimately, management will have to decide its in their interest to raise it. I don’t see that happening.

I don’t believe it has hurt their ability in the past but in this new hiring environment I agree.

I know several guys who didn’t even consider them after seeing first year pay. Long term foolish, but it definitely happens. We hire so few people though that plenty of good candidates are still out there.

Better off without them, this job is a grind and that kind of shortsightedness wouldn’t be a good fit.