DeltaSix. I’m not sure where this discussion is going, however I’ll try to appreciate your perspective.
Wages, whether a pilot, train driver, or accountant etc, are dictated by a country’s socio economic structure, influenced by supply and demand within each specific vocation. If an experienced MBA or IT graduate in the Philippines for example, earns on average PHP 30,000 (Aus$680) per month and a labourer earns PHP 12,000 (Aus$275) per month, where is the justification for paying an airline captain an equivalent first world wage of PNP 550,000 (Aus$12,500) per month?
“I use my finance and accounting degree and I get offered 120,000/year.” Yes, in Australia perhaps, but would you get offered the same salary in the Philippines, China or India? I doubt it! Why should you expect a preferential salary to work as a pilot in one of those countries, when one of their citizens is willing to fill the position at a salary that country can afford? If that country were short of accountants or pilots, the situation may be different – supply and demand!
The cost of training is not a factor which has any great influence on wages. It is simply supply and demand within each specific vocation or profession. The fact there are less MBAs, IT graduates or airline pilots, versus the number required by that society, results in a higher wage or “buying price”.
In Australia, there is generally a surplus of new, inexperienced CPL graduates, thus they are being unfairly exploited by unscrupulous operators – see other threads in Dunnunda forums. Conversely, with the rapid expansion in airline operations in Australia and whilst there is no shortage of aspiring candidates, there is a limited pool of qualified and experienced airline pilots and they command a significantly higher wage.
Pilot training costs in Asia are generally lower and many pilots are trained by the military, under government funded or partially funded schemes or as airline funded cadets.
The fact some pilots move to other countries and higher wages is again a factor of supply and demand – in the same manner many Australian pilots have moved to overseas flying positions. That is their indisputable right.
If you don’t understand “supply and demand” go study crude oil prices over the past five years or so.
I suspect Night Watch perhaps omitted one word: “South east Asian airline PILOTS deserve what they get and CX and QF guys likewise.....” I think he was alluding to my comments above. I agree with him.
Woomera