Part of the problem lies in defining "engineer" Genghis is a C.Eng so he obviously qualifies. The LAE still earning his reputation at the sharp end, and with whom most pilots are familiar, is in all honesty a technician. To compare salaries with pilots it is necessary to compare like with like. The ATPL holding "Heavy" Captain is at the top end of the profession, having put his time in. His equivalent in engineering is the high time, high qualification engineer, usually in the "back-room" or perhaps the hangar foreman with his team of fifty or more technicians and responsibility for everything that happens on his watch. I am an LAE, most of us are, that's how we usually start out. I've been at the sharp end on the Line and in the Hangars, but the license is the least of my qualifications. I rate my degree and thirty plus years of experience a bit higher up the scale. In pay and conditions I come a long way behind even the ordinary First Officer, (possibly because there is no trade representation for people like myself? Also, if we withdraw our labour no-one notices for a couple of months
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Do I or my fellows contribute as much as a Captain? I don't know, there is no way to measure such equivalence. What I do know is that we are getting fewer and fewer all the time. I love meddling with aeroplanes, that's why I do my job, its not just the money. However it gets harder to resist the offer of a non-aviation job with share scheme participation, company BMW and much nicer salary and conditions. In the not too distant future there may be yet another hole in the list of old-timers. Certainly my place will be taken by another, the indispensable man doesn't exist. The thing that ought to be of concern to pilots and public alike is that there are fewer and fewer people entering aviation engineering and thus fewer people on the ladder. The safety record isn't getting any worse, the accident rate is more or less static. Does this mean there is no problem? I don't think so. If there was no problem the accident rate would be contiually reducing towards the ideal of zero. Engineering compensation is at least part of the problem and as the pilots continue to grab more than their fair share of the revenue the day when they will really earn their inflated salaries gets ever closer.
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Through difficulties to the cinema