So year one pilots can get 7.8% of $28,000? If they flew 1000 hours, they could get 7.8% of $30,000. How generous of them...
Yeah, sure it's bs but what major does start you out on a decent wage? Come on. Ya' either suck it up for that first year and make the jump or you wonder for the rest of your career if playing it safe was the right way to go.
I only did $35,000 my first year (no reason to work hard at such a joke of an hourly rate), a couple of months of which was on second yr pay. This year, what I consider my 2nd
full year, I'll do a little North of $95,000, not including per diem, which would be another $6,000+ (I don't count per diem). Yes, a couple of months of that is based on 3rd year pay but I was also on reserve for the first 5 months of the year so it was just min guarantee then while my buds on other subbases were flying 90+ hrs.
The point is, once you get past that first year, the pay gets better. Still not as good as it could and should be. But certainly enough to justify the move from my previous airline.
I remember when debating whether to leave the comfort of an RJ job for CAL, many guys talked themselves out of it saying things like, "It will take 8 years to break even". What they didn't consider was that they were basing that $ calculation on the worse case scenario. Fortunately, for us, CAL decided to grow and we slotted in during one of the better times.