Dave,
In Canada, hiring people for non-flying jobs is very common. Many companies do this up here. It's a way for them to hire cheap and motivated labour, but it's also a way for the company to weed out the good potential pilots from the bad ones. I know this practice is not common in the USA, and I wish it was the same here in Canada. The last groundschool of pilots had 15 ramp guys in it. Experience ranged from 6-12 months. I was told to expect 1 year, and that is the mentality that I have, but it looks like it could be a little shorter.
At the moment, I am earning $8.5/hr. It goes up an extra $1 in a few months or so. I have dental and other medical benefits, and after 6 months, I get cheap travel on Westjet.
For pilots, I believe the pay to start is in the low-to-mid $20,000 range. Believe it or not, some captains have cracked $100,000, but that is very rare. I'm not sure what it tops out at, but the pay here is good, and there are many people here that are doing this for a living. The pilots are unionized too, so moral is good.
Management is also great. I have only met a few of the top people, and they seemed very easy going. We just had a barbeque yesterday too for employee appreciation. 2 weeks ago our base manager bought all the ramp guys pizza. If you work hard, then you will get treated well.
Although I would much rather be living in a bigger city, closer to civilization, and be flying the Metro, I am glad where I am. I know that I will have my shot to fly some time in the future, and that I can spend a long time here before moving on to a major airline.
