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Who were the original pilots that agreed to this???

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your_dreamguy

Well-known member
Joined
Jun 3, 2002
Posts
246
The other day, I was talking to a friend and the topic of my pay came up. I told him, I make $38 per hour and he said wow!! You see, my friend works as an engineer in the real world. So, he thinks my $38 per hour translates into $76000 per yr as it would if I worked as an engineer, architect, etc. That got me thinking as to my real pay. My $38 per hour translates into about $19 per hour. How?

There are plenty of things that I am required to do but DO NOT get paid for.

I am required to:

Read company information letters,
check company email,
update my company material such as Jepp charts,
perform a pre-flight walk-around,
program an FMS,
get ATIS,
get a clearance,
program weight and balance,
read checklists,
take long scheduling sits, on the order of 3 to 4 hours.
etc.
without getting paid.

Now, I accepted this when I first got hired. However, that has never stopped me from thinking as to how our situation got this way. In other words, how were pilots convinced to perform required tasks and not get paid for them? Who were the original pilots that accepted that just brake release to brake set was considered work? How is it that this work has not been negotiated as pay by our unions? If my airline does not want to pay me $38 per hour to read a checklist, how about at least $10 per hour,"ground time?" I cannot think of too many other professions or industries where the employees are not paid for tasks that they are REQUIRED to perform. Can you? Also, in the future, can we (airline pilots) negotiate this required work as pay into our future contracts?
Your two cents?
 
How about instead of reinventing the wheel you just remember how much you make per hour over your whole day and when you renegotiate your next contract you make sure your block hour pay is equivalent to whatever number you think "per hour" you should be making?
 
Those same senior bastards that are screwing us guys at the bottom out of our jobs... thats who

reduced bid block program my a$$......
 
We used to have really good trip regs. Usair had 3 to 1 trip regs at one point. That pretty much took block times out of account. Over time, the good things disappeared from the contracts, and the old school way of thinking that screws us stuck around.
 
Paying us this way also gives a big PR advantage to management.

"Look at these greedy pilots - they are not happy making $50.00 per hour"

Most of the public has no clue we only get paid for a fraction of the time we are "at work". They only hear $50 or $100 or whatever the rate is and think man what a sweet deal that is...
Management loves this aspect of how we are paid.
 
The other day, I was talking to a friend and the topic of my pay came up. I told him, I make $38 per hour and he said wow!! You see, my friend works as an engineer in the real world. So, he thinks my $38 per hour translates into $76000 per yr as it would if I worked as an engineer, architect, etc. That got me thinking as to my real pay. My $38 per hour translates into about $19 per hour. How?

There are plenty of things that I am required to do but DO NOT get paid for.

I am required to:

Read company information letters,
check company email,
update my company material such as Jepp charts,
perform a pre-flight walk-around,
program an FMS,
get ATIS,
get a clearance,
program weight and balance,
read checklists,
take long scheduling sits, on the order of 3 to 4 hours.
etc.
without getting paid.

Now, I accepted this when I first got hired. However, that has never stopped me from thinking as to how our situation got this way. In other words, how were pilots convinced to perform required tasks and not get paid for them? Who were the original pilots that accepted that just brake release to brake set was considered work? How is it that this work has not been negotiated as pay by our unions? If my airline does not want to pay me $38 per hour to read a checklist, how about at least $10 per hour,"ground time?" I cannot think of too many other professions or industries where the employees are not paid for tasks that they are REQUIRED to perform. Can you? Also, in the future, can we (airline pilots) negotiate this required work as pay into our future contracts?
Your two cents?


I remember having the exact conversation when I started 17 years ago....the response I got was " it is all part of your job...if you don't like it...quit." And someone else will fill your shoes. It is the industry.

I would worry about something you can change.
 
An experienced AIA or PE will average a billable rate well north of $80/hr...do you think their compensation averages over $166,000 annually?

(they don't)
 
Read company information letters,
check company email,
update my company material such as Jepp charts,
perform a pre-flight walk-around,
program an FMS,
get ATIS,
get a clearance,
program weight and balance,
read checklists,
take long scheduling sits, on the order of 3 to 4 hours.
etc.
without getting paid.

You should read "Flying the Line" it will fill in some of the gaps.
 
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