jtr, I don't understand, does that mean your HK$ salaries are based on an (optimistic) exchange rate of 4 to 1? I see no change to your original posting figures. You also said that time to J/FO is 12 to 15 months - double that and add some to get the real time to J/FO. Where on earth do you pull these figures from?
Your Oz after tax salary is still way out, and I even you gave you the official Oz government web site address to check it out - for an income of $120k (which you quote) the after tax salary with zero deductions is $81k, not $65k as you claim. Normal deductions would increase this after tax salary further - negative gearing would increase it significantly.
I think you are putting yourselves down - you seem satisfied to compare your jumbo salaries, including overtime (which I know you get nothing for) to the cheapest major carrier I know - QF - and then you seem satisified to compare it to the smaller aircraft types and say how well paid you are! Why not compare your salary to a 737 driver in Europe, or a Dash-8 in USA, I'm sure you can feel you are better off.
These comparisons are selling yourself short - I can assure you that QF do not consider CX when it comes to justifying higher salaries. Quite the contrary, you are seen as a low cost, low quality, inferior competitor.
Find this comment harsh? Then stop comparing your basic salary with a 767 driver in QF, and start thinking about the whole package - super, salary, hours (QF and AN domestic only fly 55 stick hours before earning overtime - real dollars here - QF earn time and half and double time for long sector lengths and flying at night, which you don't get at all), rostering, the whole works. You can't even make the QF comparison work without using abnormally low exchange rate, and over-estimating the Oz tax by nearly 50%. Get the facts right.
PS Talking to you reminds of one reason why I left. Too many senior pilots knew little about my salary, my time to upgrade, the salary in QF and the tax that applied. Nor did they care. Their kids had grown up, they were still on a good wage, they didn't care enough about it to bother sticking it out during the sick-out last year, and my name was Jack - as in "I'm alright, Jack, I don't give a toss about you". Your own figures show an abysmal lack of regard for the truth, even when I point you in the direction of a web site to check the taxation facts - important when comparing any salary. Grrrrrr!
[This message has been edited by zonker (edited 08 December 2000).]