Widow's Son
Well-known member
- Joined
- Jul 1, 2005
- Posts
- 149
>>The same SWA that for years and years was the scourge of the industry in the eyes of every other company's pilots for "bringing down the profession" with substandard pay.<<
That's actually not true. SWA has always been a well paying airline. It just pays its pilots differently. Its hourly pay has been lower, but its inherent productivity makes the hourly comparison less realistic than other comparisons. For decades their monthly and annual compensation has been very competitive. ALPA did a very comprehensive study on that years ago that showed that working the same amount of days and same length of days, the SWA pilots were earning very competitive total compensation with lower hourly flight pay simply because they weren't sitting around as much as everyone else and earning only per-diem. They were also the last airline to go on the "B-scale" and the first to get rid of it.
Their pay raises are reasonable and steady and are something that their management knows they can afford. They don't cave to the huge increases that relatively quickly come crashing down. What effect does that wage volitility have on bringing down the industry?
The retirement argument is stupid too. SWA would have to pay out less money if they had a defined benefit pension plan rather than the 401k/ profit sharing combination they have. The reason the other plans are sunk is because their airlines stopped making contributions all the while SWA was dutifully paying their matches and profit sharing contributions like they always have and always will. Over the last 20 years their combined 401k match and profit sharing contributions have exceeded the outlay per pilot of even the most generous legacy retirement plans of the glory days. The only difference was, the profit sharing wasn't guaranteed and therefore never showed up in comparisons. The present situation shows that the good will and profitability of SWA soundly beats whatever guarantees the other contracts thought they had.
That's actually not true. SWA has always been a well paying airline. It just pays its pilots differently. Its hourly pay has been lower, but its inherent productivity makes the hourly comparison less realistic than other comparisons. For decades their monthly and annual compensation has been very competitive. ALPA did a very comprehensive study on that years ago that showed that working the same amount of days and same length of days, the SWA pilots were earning very competitive total compensation with lower hourly flight pay simply because they weren't sitting around as much as everyone else and earning only per-diem. They were also the last airline to go on the "B-scale" and the first to get rid of it.
Their pay raises are reasonable and steady and are something that their management knows they can afford. They don't cave to the huge increases that relatively quickly come crashing down. What effect does that wage volitility have on bringing down the industry?
The retirement argument is stupid too. SWA would have to pay out less money if they had a defined benefit pension plan rather than the 401k/ profit sharing combination they have. The reason the other plans are sunk is because their airlines stopped making contributions all the while SWA was dutifully paying their matches and profit sharing contributions like they always have and always will. Over the last 20 years their combined 401k match and profit sharing contributions have exceeded the outlay per pilot of even the most generous legacy retirement plans of the glory days. The only difference was, the profit sharing wasn't guaranteed and therefore never showed up in comparisons. The present situation shows that the good will and profitability of SWA soundly beats whatever guarantees the other contracts thought they had.