AAL Pay in the 1970s

[CODs4ever]

An old retired pilot told me that a senior captain at AAL made around $140K/year in the early 1970s. If this is true, then airline pay has definitely not kept up with inflation since $140K/year today seems to be close to the average for senior captains at most airlines...

$140K in 1975 is over $500K in today's dollars

and your point is?

 

[rudderdog]

I think the standard back then was one cadillac per month.

Lets see....what would that be today? 300 to 400k

 

[HAL]

Not true.

My father flew for United, and their rates were very close to AA's. He retired in 1973 near the top of the UA seniority list flying the 747. He was making a little under $60k per year. There's no way AA was paying $140k. I think he was either pulling your chain, or his memory has become very rosy tinted.

HAL

 

[chris69]

My parents bought a house in San Diego for $28k and passed on one for $36k in La Jolla in 1970. So around $60k should be worth two median San Diego houses today, right?

 

[HAL]

My parents bought a house in San Diego for $28k and passed on one for $36k in La Jolla in 1970. So around $60k should be worth two median San Diego houses today, right?

Same story here. My parents bought a house in Corona del Mar CA in 1962 for $35k, and sold it in 1972 for $55k, and they thought it was a pretty good profit. It sold again four years later for $255k, and ten years later for $1.2M.

Everything goes up (except recent pilot salaries).

HAL

 

[psysicx]

Mom's parents bought a house in La Jolla for $15,000 worth over a million. My grandma sold here house in La Mesa to my uncle for $100,000 and she bought it for $10,000. The house is trashed but the lot is huge and worth over $500,000.

 

[FoxHunter]

An old retired pilot told me that a senior captain at AAL made around $140K/year in the early 1970s. If this is true, then airline pay has definitely not kept up with inflation since $140K/year today seems to be close to the average for senior captains at most airlines...

$140K in 1975 is over $500K in today's dollars

and your point is?

I recall reading in 1974 that Delta had just signed a contract paying 747 Captains $100,000 per year. I also recall that EAL L1011 Captains made around $66,000 which was considered great pay at that time.

 

[warbirdfinder]

Going back a little further, at the time of the PNA/WAL merger in 1967, Connie Captains got a raise to $25,000.00/year, which was the the WAL Electra rate.

New hires were paid $500.00/month with an extra $50.00 for being based in Anchorage

 

[jhill]

Mom's parents bought a house in La Jolla for $15,000 worth over a million. My grandma sold here house in La Mesa to my uncle for $100,000 and she bought it for $10,000. The house is trashed but the lot is huge and worth over $500,000.

oh yeah, my grandmother can beat up yours in either of those cities for less than 10K

 

[FoxHunter]

Going back a little further, at the time of the PNA/WAL merger in 1967, Connie Captains got a raise to $25,000.00/year, which was the the WAL Electra rate.

New hires were paid $500.00/month with an extra $50.00 for being based in Anchorage

When I started with Seaboard World in 69' as a DC-8 F/O the pay was $600 per month flat pay. I did improve after I was recalled from my first furlough 5 years later it was all the way up to $750 for the first year. Took me almost 8 years to get off first year pay. Worked as a DC-8 F/O for Capitol International the summer of 1970. Since we were all DC-8 qualified they bumped the ALPA contract first year pay up from $450 a month to $650. They did manage to fly me 105 hours the first month, flat pay $650.

 

[SuperFLUF]

I think the standard back then was one cadillac per month.

Lets see....what would that be today? 300 to 400k

When United got their last contract INCREASE in 2000 or 2001 (I can't remember back that far ),

ALPA made a big deal about the fact that United had finally returned their pay back to pre deregulation (ie pre concessions) rates indexed for inflation.

 

[pilotyip]

In 1968 I made $5K/yr flying for the Navy, we marveled about how if we got hired by DAL we could be making $25K in about 5 years. The time it took to make Captain back then. A new car cost $1.7K, a new cost house cost 25K, and gas was 28 cents a galloon. I paid $78.00 in federal taxes. Now multiply everything by 10 and it pretty well fits today, except taxes, my percentage of taxes has gone up 100 fold while everything else has gone up 10 fold.

 

[Speed Turd]

An old retired pilot told me that a senior captain at AAL made around $140K/year in the early 1970s. If this is true, then airline pay has definitely not kept up with inflation since $140K/year today seems to be close to the average for senior captains at most airlines...

$140K in 1975 is over $500K in today's dollars

and your point is?

They also didn't have the "Delta Connection Academy" either.

 

[SWAdude]

Interesting site to compare yesterdays dollars to todays.

http://www.aier.org/cgi-aier/colcalculator.cgi

 

[GogglesPisano]

Interesting site to compare yesterdays dollars to todays.

http://www.aier.org/cgi-aier/colcalculator.cgi

Interesting. According to their calculations, the $25,000/yr CAL was offering newhires in 1985 is now equivalent to $45,000.

Instead, they're paying $27,000.

 

[Wiskey Driver]

I have a magazine article that was printed in Aug 1966 in the AOPA PILOT that read "WE'LL PAY YOU $1,000,000 TO FLY FOR UNITED!" It further indicated that "to give you and idea of how your salary progresses at United consider the fact that you start at $6600/yr as a second officer and at the beginning of your second yr you earn $10,200/yr 3rd yr was $14,400 4th yr $15,600 5 yr $16,800 etc etc. It took 10 to 12 years to make captain and a salaryu of $23,000 to $33,000 depending on the equipment you fly. The article even has a coupon to mail in for more info.


I wish I could scan it so everyone could see. Maybe someone can get it from AOPA PILOT and post it here. In any event that was pretty good salary 40yr ago!!

WD.