A Pilots worth?
It's been done to death. My go.
What is a Pilots real worth?? A LAME gets paid a great wage once finished his or her apprenticeship, the accounts person gets paid roughly the same as someone associated with another type of job.
The refuelers get paid a reasonable wage for a good days work.
The Air Traffic controllers get paid a nice return.
The Aircraft owners get a great rate for the hirer of their Aircraft.
The Caterers probably get more for a sandwich than any local takeaway shop.
So why do pilots, especially low time guys get shafted and basically anyone in G.A. You would think that with all the ingredients required to complete a flight the Pilots job would have to be the most valuable??? So why do they get shafted.
So here are some reasons I can think of
1. as a group the pilots lack power. You can blame the union all you like but at the end of the day are you an active member, did you vote for representation… do you raise concerns with them???
2. The Major Airlines and the regionals don’t actively set industry standards. They are Happy to take on any pilot regardless of how they got their hours. It doesn’t matter one little bit how the bottom of the food chain is going, they don’t care ( this includes all the guys that did it tough in years gone by, who now get a pay that they are worthy of. How people forget) at all because if things were fixed at the bottom than they would have to pay more at the top.
3. Employers use tactics like we will just replace you if you don’t like it with someone who will like it.
4. Everyone has to do it at one stage or another. (working below the Award)
5. ( this is my excuse) I didn’t know there was an award, I thought that this was normal practice.
6. If you do take a moral stand their will generally be no one standing beside you. In fact there will be more people hoping you’ll fall so they will move up the food chain. Pilots again happy to eat there own.
Employers will always try to make as much profit as they CAN therefore they try to pay Pilots as little as possible.. The facts are that they CAN abuse the rights of Pilots because we as a Group of Professionals allow it to happen year after year, because we as a group refuse to set our own standards. We justify this because we need the Hours or I just want my 500 hours and I’m out of here. But guess what Employers need Pilots, they cant fly them all them selves. We are worthy of a pay packet that allows us to feed our selves.
If we are not happy with our representatives in our work place, or the unions than lets vote for people who will give us a voice. That wont put up with Professionals working for free.