Payscales Of Yesteryear

[rddrman]

Does anyone have, or know where to find, payscales of majors back in the day. Maybe for the 60's,70's,or 80's, you know back when airline travel was glamorous as well as prestigous. (for pilots and pax alike) Just curious and a nice change from the usual "mutual praise and admiration posts".
Thanks in advance.

 

[CaptainMark]

welcome to flightinfo..better put on your boxing gloves...anyway..i am not sure where u could find them but i think if u did and then posted them it would be very depressing...Tigers pilots were the highest paid in the 70s and 80s i believe...i will search myself...

 

[CaptainMark]

TABLE 2:
15% Pay Increase Every 2 Years
Year B737 FO B737 Cap B747 Cap
1978 $70,000 $100,000 $175,000
1980 $80,500 $115,000 $201,250
1982 $92,575 $132,250 $231,438
1884 $106,461 $152,088 $266,153
1986 $122,430 $174,901 $306,076
1988 $140,795 $201,136 $351,988
1990 $161,914 $231,306 $404,786
1992 $186,201 $266,002 $465,503
1994 $214,132 $305,902 $535,329
1996 $246,251 $351,788 $615,628
1998 $283,189 $404,556 $707,973
2000 $325,667 $465,239 $814,168
2002 $374,518 $535,025 $936,294


i told u it would be depressing...

 

[Spooky 2]

Started at a major airline (1964) as a DC6B FE for $475.00 a month. Later as a Navigator at $625. First "incentive pay" as a B707 FE was $1,302.49 per month. I thought I had so much money at that time I would have to burn some it so it wouldn't get in the way. Man those were great times!

 

[Geronimo4497]

Are those Tigers figures, Cpt. Mark? All I can say is . How does that line go? The beatings will continue until moral improves!

 

[The Prussian]

You believe those numbers,...you'll believe anything!!!

 

[CaptainMark]

those are the real salaries from 1978..and then projected at the 15 % raise...just fictional (obviously) projected salaries..but the point is those were the salaries of pilots in 1978...can't remember the website i found that, but i will look again for it...

 

[SWA/FO]

How much did Fed Ex pay for flying tigers? Wolf was involved in that deal, huh? Probably after he "painted" the fleet. That was a "bad" deal for the tiger guys? I thought they were all pissed about it? Was it a staple job?

 

[CaptainMark]

$880,000,000...i don't think it was a bad deal...depends on who u ask..a purple guy or silver guy...the merging of the lists was the big issue...wait till usair and amwest merge...the only one who is happy in a merger of seniority lists is the number 1 guy...

 

[Pilotbob3]

big problem is that there are too many dopes that think that 100K is great pay.

 

[KeroseneSnorter]

Do not have the payscale in front of me, but in 1971 my old man made 40k left seat in a Convair 580........thats what?...about 130k or so now? Maybe more. Remember that the 580 was around 50 seats and considered a short haul.....not to mention those big spinning thingys on the front of the engines.

In 1971 a new Cadillac ran you the whopping price of around $7000...........not gonna buy a new caddy on RJ cappy pay nowadays!

 

[stonewall]

How much did Fed Ex pay for flying tigers? Wolf was involved in that deal, huh? Probably after he "painted" the fleet. That was a "bad" deal for the tiger guys? I thought they were all pissed about it? Was it a staple job?

I haven't talked to anyone about it, but all the remaining Tiger dudes at FDX are pretty senior, and they all seem pretty happy. My old man was hired at FDX right before the merger...lost about a 1000 seniority numbers over night.



Yeah...my old man. What?? You think I got hired at FDX b/c I was military????

 

[whalepilot747]

<<wait till usair and amwest merge...the only one who is happy in a merger of seniority lists is the number 1 guy...>>

 

[PHXFLYR]

I haven't talked to anyone about it, but all the remaining Tiger dudes at FDX are pretty senior, and they all seem pretty happy. My old man was hired at FDX right before the merger...lost about a 1000 seniority numbers over night.



Yeah...my old man. What?? You think I got hired at FDX b/c I was military????

UH....yup!


PHXFLYR

 

[FoxHunter]

How much did Fed Ex pay for flying tigers? Wolf was involved in that deal, huh? Probably after he "painted" the fleet. That was a "bad" deal for the tiger guys? I thought they were all pissed about it? Was it a staple job?

I'm actually a Seaboard pilot that worked for Tigers from October 1980 until August 1989. FedEx was a great deal for the Tiger guys, although many would never admit it. FedEx Management wanted a merged list based on the age of the companies. Tiger pilots wanted DOH, FedEx pilots wanted a staple. The arbitrator did it by ratio based on a projection of the fleet a couple of years down the road. I was hired by Seaboard in 69', with 73' DOH on the Tiger list, behind the last guy hired in 1980 at FedEx.

Tigers did have the highest pay prior to Wolf in the early 80s. In 1984, my last year as a 747 F/O, I earned $111,000. In my last year as a 727 Captain, 1987, I earned a little less that $62,000.

 

[CA1900]

Year B737 FO B737 Cap B747 Cap
1978 $70,000 $100,000 $175,000

Adjusted for inflation to 2005 (closest I could find):

Year   B737 FO   B737 Cap  B747 Cap
1978   $213,285  $304,693  $533,212
(adj.)

Wow. Depressing indeed!

 

[Gorilla]

In 1971 a new Cadillac ran you the whopping price of around $7000...........not gonna buy a new caddy on RJ cappy pay nowadays!

Yup, the "new caddy" benchmark. How many hours do you need to fly to buy a new cadillac? A crude but effective measure of pay and inflation.

I don't have any numbers, but depressing is too mild a word. I flew a while back with a guy who had cleaned his desk out and found a bidsheet from 1991. We placed it side by side with a current bidsheet, and wept for a few hours... that's how good that old bidsheet was. Quality layovers, high pay. Even the extremely junior trips were 12 days of work for 78 hours.:bawling:

 

[Flyer2000]

Out of curiousity does anybody know what a ticket cost from say LAX to JFK in 1978 and what it should cost adjusted for inflation? Also, what was a gallon of gasoline in 1978 adujsted for inflation?

 

[SWA/FO]

I went from DTW to Orlando in 1980 and it cost $179.00 round trip. That was on Delta.