Comair First Year Pay?

[uba757]

My question is how reallistic is it to make any more than the base Salary in the first year?

 

[chperplt]

I started flying the line last May 8th. My CMR W2 showed $24500 in earnings last year. 8 months on line plus training pay which isn't much...That's just a bit over min pay.

I'm also including per diem in that total #... I don't spend much of it so I include it as income.

 

[skiddriver]

It's not very realistic because of the training pay you'll receive until you start flying ($260 per week if I remember correctly, might have gone up a little). I started training in mid-Jun '02, and flew my line training in the first half of Sep '02. 2 1/2 months of training pay drags down that first year's earnings.

Once you start flying, it will depend on whether you get above reserve line mins (75 hours). Don't count on racking up any significant amount of pay above base the first year, or any year following that, until you get higher up the seniority list.

 

[chperplt]

Don't count on racking up any significant amount of pay above base the first year, or any year following that, until you get higher up the seniority list.

I don't think I'm the exception, and I made over base pay my first year. I made more than a years worth of base pay with only 8 months on line.

Training pay is $250 per week I believe.

 

[uba757]

Thanks for the responce guys, I am going to class on March 21st and trying to plan my finances.

 

[skiddriver]

chperplt,

We'll have to agree to disagree on this, but my opinion is that your base pay IS your pay. The per diem is an allowance that goes up and down depending on your time away from base. It shows up in your paycheck, but it isn't pay. It's a reimbursement for living expense away from home base. If you're in training, it goes away.

For you to say that you exceeded your annual base pay in the final 8 months of the year, you would have had to have been paid the equivalent of 984 hours, or 123 hours a month, which I seriously doubt.

In my current job, I was reimbursed (actual cost reimbursement) over $8000 for per diem/travel for the last 4 months of the year. It's not pay, even though it showed up in my bank account. It's a reimbursement.

And if you want to give him a better number to work from, don't give him your gross pay, give him your taxable for the year. It's a better number to plan from.

FYI my Comair gross taxable from Jun '02 to Jun '03 was $19,598. That's with 2 1/2 months training pay, and 3 1/2 months on reserve. Full base pay for that period would have been $21,402, so I grossed about 92% of that, including taxable allowances. My take home for the first 12 months, including per diem was about $18,500, lower than most because of my higher tax filing status (wife worked and I had my mil retirement coming in).

Full base for Jun '05 to Jun '06 for a first year FO is $24,058. UBA757, you won't be getting off reserve anytime soon, so my guess is that your gross will be in the range of $20,500 to $21,000. Your take home (highly dependent on filing status), should be around $20,000, including per diem.

 

[uba757]

Thanks for the info Skid.