Originally Posted by
morno
I see this “real terms” a lot. What exactly do you expect to be paid compared to the average person? I’m guessing your “real terms” would be around $350-400k a year now if you had your way.
Look I’m not one to refuse more and more money, but let’s be realistic, what we earnt pre-covid, was pretty good, and if you couldn’t live comfortably, maybe you should be taking a look at your situation.
I think most refer to real terms as being adjusted for inflation. I'm not an economist, but my understanding is that it's a pretty subjective measure as it depends a lot on other costs inflating at different rates.
In "real terms" your annual salary increases will be eaten away to some degree by CPI, however other cost of living items not covered by CPI may actually be a lot cheaper. When we also take into account assets like your home appreciating it's a little difficult to quantify.
Or I'm completely misunderstanding the premise. Which is entirely possible.
Compared to 20 years ago when I joined my "legacy" carrier, I'm substantially better off in regards to salary. Whether or not that salary gain would have been higher in "real terms" compared to the previous generation of pilots who started 20 yrs earlier I don't know.
As an aside, I don't see $350K as being unreasonable for a professional tied into one company for many decades of service. Lots of professions (and non professions) earn similar if not a lot more.
Don't be one of those guys that talks the job down to being nothing more than a basic trade.