The $6.86/hr airline pilot.

[GuppyPuppy]

If we were to compare a regional new-hire's annual "earnings" with those of an hourly wage full-time worker....

At $19.02/flight hour multiplied by seventy-five hours per month multiplied by 12 months = $17,118/year. But wait! You don't get paid while you are in new-hire training. That takes two months! So, a first year FO at said hourly rate would make $14,265/year for his/her first year.

If a full-time hourly wage worker works 40 hours/week this equates to 2,080 hours per year. So, if this full time worker were to make the same as a new-hire FO, his/her hourly rate would be a whopping $6.86/hour.

In & Out Burger starting pay is $10/hr. Heck, I think the rampers make more than $6.86/hr.

Can you say minimum wage?

For those of you considering an airline career, you'd better love flying a whole bunch because after years and years of training, and tens of thousands of dollars in bills this what you have to look forward to....a job that pays the equivalent of $6.86 per hour.

Sorry for the venting. I guess I'm just in a pi$$y mood tonight. It happens once in a while.

Oh well, beats working for a living, eh?

GP

 

[katanabob]

Well, ASA pays your minimum guarantee (75 hours a month) starting on day one. I don't know about anyone else; I imagine I was quite fortunate in stumbling firsthand upon this information.

The kicker, though, is going to be when you start averaging hours spent on reserve. 20 days a month and 16 hours a day, that's 320 hours of on-call time and (19.02 x 75 hours) 1426.50 in pay. (4.45 an hour) Though this is time spent waiting by the phone and not flying, it's still time spent away from where I'd really like to be. (Though it does enlighten my mood somewhat to have lunch at McDonald's during my callout period and think about how I am being paid roughly the same hourly rate to eat my lunch as he is being paid to serve me) (Yes, I know I can really be a bastard sometimes.)

MSN has a great time-value calculator that will depress even the lowest-paid pilot in our midst.

http://moneycentral.msn.com/investor/calcs/n_time/main.asp

 

[GuppyPuppy]

Yikes!!!

I tried the calculator and just gave it some off the cuff figures. It said that I lost an average of $0.62/hour at my current job!!!

Help me Mr. Wizard!

GP

 

[exagony]

Don't worry, as soon as someone from MESA sees this they'll be sure to do it for less!!!

 

[chperplt]

It amazes me that many of the larger regional/commuter airlines don't pay from day 1. Colgan pays from day 1 and gives you a hotel room to boot. If Colgan can do that, everyone can do that.

 

[Styles]

$14.03 off that thing on MSN; not bad... But I dont fly for a living and hate my job.

 

[bobbysamd]

Regional Pay

But, folks, bear in mind the Glamor of being a big-time (regional) airline pilot.

Of course, first-year pay sucks. Just the same, I would have given my eye-teeth just to be offered the opportunity to make $14K a year. That, for me at the time, would have been an $8K - $10K pay cut. Just bear in mind the opportunity(ies) that come later.

 

[Otto_Pilot]

opportunities

What opportunities are those?

The opportunity to upgrade...then get hired by a major, fly for a few years... get furloughed... get hired by a regional and start all over again?

(tongue-in-cheek)

 

[bobbysamd]

"Opportunities"

What opportunities are those?

The opportunity to upgrade...then get hired by a major, fly for a few years... get furloughed... get hired by a regional and start all over again?

(tongue-in-cheek)

Yep. Unless you can get on with a decent regional that is willing to offer you a career. That's tongue-in-cheek, too.

Realistically, in my $0.02 opinion, few regionals want you to stay. They're afraid that if you stay you will top out at scale and vest in their retirement plans, both of which would up their expenses. On the other hand, a couple, such as Comair and SkyWest, appear to be interested in having career regional pilots.