"Show me 1 pilot who does that for 160k/yr"

I don't know, man, but I could show you some regional guys that do it as F/O's for less than 30K. Maybe that's why they deserve 200K a year when they finally make it to a decent major.

conc26,

Well it seems that the rest of the country is slowly coming into agreement with your line of thinking. Pilots are nothing special. The only reason that I can see that they have for expecting the high pay scales is because of the fat paycheck tradition. The way things are going in a few years pilots will average just above police officer pay. If we follow the "being paid to be away from home" concept then perhaps a foot soldier in Iraq should be paid around 380K.

Maybe the next house that needs cleaning is ARTCC. Didn't Reagan just do that in the 80's? I can't really remember since I was in Jr. High at the time. You guys always seemed overpaid to me. Back when I was getting my instrument training I would go to the sea artcc and hang out while the controllers told dirty jokes and passed the magazine cart around. Mostly they were reading the Robb Report to see what kind of boat or sports car that they should buy next.

SkyHigh

CFI 1,000 dollars a month. 7 days a week every once in a while I would take a few unpaid days off.
Air Force Pilot 6 months away from home at a pop, working a much harder schedule than that, for less pay.
Then I get the chance to start over flying for a major at 30,000 a year, so after 12 years with that company I can hope to make capt and maybe make 160K.
I'm not complaining, this is what I signed up to do, and I enjoy it.
But, don't tell me you know what being a pilot is all about.

I'll bet that you could walk into almost any McDonalds and see people who work the same hours for 30K per year. Does that help?

SkyHigh

"Maybe the next house that needs cleaning is ARTCC"
"You guys always seemed overpaid to me"

Naw...controllers deserve every penny the make. If anything, they deserve a raise.

Worse schedule than working 6 days a week of rotating shifts including midshifts? Ok.

Robb Report? Never saw one in a facility, ever. Want to see some expensive toys, look closer to home.

Regional guys work their ass off along with most pilots that are not at the top in a major. Corporate sucks, commuter sucks. 20 days off a month for 160k+/yr, gravy train.

Controllers are well paid, never said otherwise, just that 4 days off a month is a little tough as an ongoing proposition. We never get to the 20 days off a month scenario.

I could do that. Or I could send you a controller application so you could work an extra 14 days a month for a cut in pay.

conc26,

I would gladly apply to become a controller. I have even looked into it a time or two. On my first attempt they claimed to be only hiring minorities and on my second they told me that I was to old. I think that all you guys are way off base from what most of the rest of the world earns for much more difficult jobs. Most people with more education and sacrifice make less than half of either profession and don't have a cushy government retirement to look forward to either. Change has already started at the airlines. I think it would do my heart some good to see the ghost of Ron Reagan come back and clean house again, or perhaps we should continue to contract out control towers and move center into the private sector as well. Competition is good for every industry.

Skyhigh

I was looking at pilot pay charts for the majors. Most of them end at 12 years. If you stay on the same aircraft in the same seat after 12 years at the company, does your pay still continue to increase, or does seniority not matter for pay after 12 years??
Thanks

Cushy retirement, more details please. I'll put in 25+ years when I'll first qualify for retirement. Is that cushy? I have a controller friend who's dad in retirement from DAL makes more than he will full time as a controller. Thats cushy. A UAL capt even after the BK will only make about 10K/yr less than I will in retirement, and thats a lot of time making twice what I do for who knows how long before that.

No matter what opinions we have that differ here, I bet almost all if not all who work in the industry would agree that we have the safest aviation system in the world. No place safer to travel by air than in the U.S. And thats thanks to all of us.