Originally Posted by
Tucknroll
The money that pilots earn isn’t as good as you may think. Sure it’s good compared to GA but $350k for a highly skilled professional at the top of their field isn’t a huge amount of money. Captains earning that would be earning less than their contemporaries in law, medicine and management. Most tradies operating their own business earn over $200k
ATO stats for income for various occupations.
Average and median taxable income, salary or wages, and total income, by occupation
It does show the average for all pilots in the industry, but at the median salary level for air transport professionals (ie pilots) they are the highest earning profession on the list that does not require a minimum of a Bachelor's degree. It's really only Surgeons, Anesthetists, Financial Dealers, Psychiatrists, Mining Engineers and Engineering Managers that out earn pilots. The median pilot out earns the median GP, School Principal or Dentist.
For the salaries achievable for FO level in mainline (which was quite junior for the last few years of recruitment) it's really only medical professionals with postgrad qualifications who do better.
For the top salary levels in other professions like
In law you'd have to be at a State Supreme Court or Appeal Court Judge level to make significantly more than a 380 Captain.
For the time spent at work and nature of the job I reckon it can't be beaten when it comes to work/pay balance.