Originally Posted by
YOWgary
Plus you won't get in trouble if you fall asleep for half an hour.
I work in and alongside trades where you get the job right or people get killed - and we pay a lot more to the roles for which that's a factor - but our mistakes would largely harm five or ten people at a time. Through that lens, if your argument is that pay should be commensurate with "duties and requirements", then a regional pilot who's responsible for 50-75 lives, five times a day, probably should be getting paid more than a dental hygenist or an apprentice plumber.
It looks like you're talking about Delta, whose June-quarter reporting included pre-tax income of $2 billion with a 15 percent operating margin. I don't know where you're getting any of these ideas.
A 777 pilot with 20 years' experience can make 10x what a first-year FA does. This argument demonstrates either a lack of understanding or a lack of good faith.
Because nobody dies if an accountant's too tired to think straight.
This is really what the whole thing boils down to; we expect pilots to be highly-trained, well-rested and generally fit to perform at a high level, and then when they ask for their pay not to lag well behind inflation, I see a thread here full of people deriding those same pilots for not just driving in two hours from Penetanguishene each morning so they can afford to live.
I fully agree there are very large disparities for pay versus responsibility across the economy. I would also like those to be balanced. The push to have fast food workers make more than EMT paramedics or other frontline medical staff should be corrected.....But pilots are no where near EMT paramedics, scales here, when you say afford to live....these people arent in a studio apartment. They do the same as we all do....move to get the biggest house and commute.....its not like they are on the poverty line....
DL's current results are certainly an outlier for plenty of non-flying reasons. Look at Southwest, UA, AA and others that are giving the same levels of pay who arent making money. The loyalty programs are the ones making money but need to have a loss leader doing the actual flying. There is an actual limit of what your actions bring in terms of revenue (how much a person is willing to pay for a plane ticket) which will limit your overall pay possibilities. You can make the formula more complicated.....but you need to bring enough revenue to cover your costs. This is where I see BK being used to bring these costs more in line with reality of what can be sustained.
In terms of inflation....that you need more to cover inflation and they should deserve it. Well....welcome to the rest of us who cant get more to cover the cost increases too. This isnt unique to just one section of the economy, we all deserve it, but we dont want to pay more or increase productivity for our work/goods. <insert economic feedback loop here>