Declining Glories: The Airline Career

[XJTAv8r]

I am suprised an XJT pilot is concerned about this issue and glad you have spoken up.

Actually, I'm a former XJT pilot I just decided to keep my old screen name
Thanks for the info. :beer:

Hopefully enough people will speak out, so a more balanced view of this issue is in the minds of the public and those in power.

 

[Andy]

This is still a great career, to be paid in the upper 5% of US income earners to do something you like. Most people will never expereince that.
Now if you do not like flying this is a terrible job.

You fail to see the trend in compensation. It continues to slide into the toilet. I would like to see current data that indicates that pilots are paid in the top 5% of US income earners. What is the salary of the top 5%? I've got a link here to some very old data; 1995. It indicates that the top 5% averaged $244K and the top 10% averaged $168K. http://www.allegromedia.com/sugi/taxes/
I don't know how much you're making, but the top Captains at United in 2007 aren't able to touch the average salary of the top 5% in1995!

Like it or not, the average pilot is now earning in the top 1/3 of US income earners. And the trend continues downward.

 

[luckytohaveajob]

Andy, now I am depressed about the 1995 top third.

 

[Green]

You fail to see the trend in compensation. It continues to slide into the toilet. I would like to see current data that indicates that pilots are paid in the top 5% of US income earners. What is the salary of the top 5%? I've got a link here to some very old data; 1995. It indicates that the top 5% averaged $244K and the top 10% averaged $168K. http://www.allegromedia.com/sugi/taxes/
I don't know how much you're making, but the top Captains at United in 2007 aren't able to touch the average salary of the top 5% in1995!

Like it or not, the average pilot is now earning in the top 1/3 of US income earners. And the trend continues downward.

right on Andy. Too many pilots still think 100k is a lot of money. Maybe if you live in Alabama but for those of us on the coasts where a fixer upper costs 400k+ our salaries just don't guarantee a decent lifestyle anymore...Time to take back what was given up in the name of saving the company.

 

[800Dog]

right on Andy. Too many pilots still think 100k is a lot of money. Maybe if you live in Alabama but for those of us on the coasts where a fixer upper costs 400k+ our salaries just don't guarantee a decent lifestyle anymore...Time to take back what was given up in the name of saving the company.

Green and Andy get it! Pilotyip is still living in the 70s. Probably still wearing bellbottoms, brute 44 is his choice of colognes and he has a lava lamp in his pad so the ladies think is a one groovy guy.

 

[Phaedrus]

Probably still wearing bellbottoms, brute 44 is his choice of colognes and he has a lava lamp in his pad so the ladies think is a one groovy guy.

You're confusing him with Ty Webb!

 

[Hpilot]

Green and Andy hit it spot on. If there aren't any serious reversals in pay I don't see myself staying in this profession. Just because I enjoy my job doesn't mean I should be getting paid a sh!t salary. My friend who's an orthopedic enjoys his job and doesn't feel guilty about $500,000 a year. I'm not saying we should be making that much, but $100,000 a year just means your wife's going to be working too.

 

[Draginass]

The CEO of Home Depot just got fired for doing a bad job . . . and he got $200 million dollars severance. Corporate greed has run amock in this United States, aided by their friends in the Democratic and Republican Parties. Just look at the huge payouts that the elite managers at American Airlines are opening their bank personal vaults wide to receive.

 

[800Dog]

Green and Andy hit it spot on. If there aren't any serious reversals in pay I don't see myself staying in this profession. Just because I enjoy my job doesn't mean I should be getting paid a sh!t salary. My friend who's an orthopedic enjoys his job and doesn't feel guilty about $500,000 a year. I'm not saying we should be making that much, but $100,000 a year just means your wife's going to be working too.

Pilotyip and others will tell you Doctors do not make much these days. They are wrong. Some primary care physicians make under 100k but others are making big money. My cousin is an ER Doctor and makes sick money. He deserves it. My Father runs a hospital and just signed two Doctors at 500k a year plus a 500k signing bonus. We need to reverse the slide or we will find ourselves in the lower middle class. We seem to be our own worst enemy. I wish the LUV folks and all other pilots the best. Pay raises, increases in benefits etc. Problem is many seem to enjoy others taking paycuts.

 

[YourPilotFriend]

Good doctors are in high demand, low paid pilots are in high demand. Pilots looking for higher pay is in high supply. I don't see doctors relaxing their professional standards to get increase the supply. They just demand higher pay to attract better applicants. If medical insurance didn't exist, doctors would make 50K a year probably. Take a look at doctor's around Detroit and you will see their pay sliding because the automotive companies aren't paying insurance premiums anymore.