It’s easy to critique people from the other side of a keyboard. Also, while I do harbor a general distaste for the narsacistic nature of social media and YouTube “influencers”, I don’t think the video poster had that intention. I think it’s an honest video to help mil pilots looking at crossing over, while also serving as a marketing platform for his books.

Problem is it’s not titled that way so anyone can see it. The other issue is that he tells the general public that being airline pilot is easy. In the 20min video that must have been said at least 10 times. Basically he gets little satisfaction from the job and does it for the money (to be clear, we all do it for the money). That feeds the stereotype that we and our unions are trying to fight which is we are over paid bus drivers. In a time when we are fighting constant threats to discredit our importance, level of responsibility, erode our pay and benefits, and legislation to look into single pilot operations, this video doesn’t help our cause.

According to the video a fighter pilot does a much harder job for a whole lot less money. So that begs the question, why are we paying airline pilots this much? Different angle but the same damage as the Instagram and you tube stars of Ryan Air and regional airlines that glamorize the job while working for next to nothing.

Or rather, why are we paying fighter pilots so little?

I’d agree with that too.

Non-union and enough of a cool factor to draw more than enough people in just for the type of work

They get paid the same as any other service member, with some hazard pay (similar to other specialties), and retention pay (specific to airframe, as-needed to manage the force structure).

It's probably not practical for the government to give them legacy airline pay, instead they should try to manage the career path so as to be something people want to do. But actually the government really only needs to keep them for the 10-15 years between ADSC and retirement eligibility. After 20+ years, they only need a relatively small handful of colonels, and even those for only a few more years. Very few officers can get anywhere near age 60, and you'd need a lot of stars on shoulder to even have a chance.

It's probably a losing battle to retain enough folks in this airline hiring climate. Instead, they need to make sure they attract them to the reserves, so if they ever really need them, they're available and current. IMO they might need to move some planes to the guard/reserve, since that's where all their pilots are headed anyway.

Wow, where to start...
It ain't the pay; it's the loss of swagger. And time away from home.

The AF has 12,300 pilots; DL, UA and AA each exceed that. The USAF (or Navy/USMC) could easily pay Legacy pay rates by purchasing one less F-35/B-21/pick-a-plane. But that won't solve the institutional problems that are at the core of the pilot shortage.

The US Post Office LOSES more money per year than the USAF annual budget for the entire nuclear force...money's not the issue.

By "not practical" I didn't mean fiscally. It would be a political issue with the rest of the military (and the public). Targeted retention bonuses get after that somewhat, and justified by empirical retention data.

Like I said, plan B had better be keep them in the reserves and even that's not going so great.

Don't forget, most of the USAF resents the heck out of the pilots and would freak the hell out if mil pilots were paid what they were actually worth (like doctors are, both mil and GS). People understand doctors getting paid a lot, but they absolutely freak out with jealousy and resentment if pilots get compensated at market value.

USAF absolutely HATES their pilots. Resentment is far too mild of a word. No way they'll ever get paid enough to retain them, so either the JOB is cool or the JOB sucks. Right now, the JOB sucks because it's mostly queep and very little flying, while working within an organization that hates you and twists the rules to ensure that pilots are measured for promotion with the exact same criteria as some shoe clerk desk jockey who works in a clean office, has nothing more stressful in their day than ensuring the coffee pot is cleaned occasionally yet still wears a utility uniform, and who might deploy once in their career to a rear echelon staff job.

Edit - This is nothing new. Look up Bill Mauldin's comics and his references to the stereotypical "REMF".

I own, and cherish, a hardback copy of "Up Front" by Bill Mauldin. A true classic.

If only pilots accounted for the vast majority of General Officers even though, unlike their peers in maintenance, security, and others they rarely lead large groups until later in their career, they could change the system... Oh wait. Pilots run the Air Force.

There's some truth here. In the other services, almost everybody routinely goes over the horizon as a team for expeditionary operations as a matter of course. AF launches the warfighters, but most of the rest stay behind in their offices in CONUS and go home at 5:00 pm.