The salary might be tax free, but do you pay 3 and a half quid for half a dozen free range eggs at your local grocery store? A packet of breakfast cereal is about the same. Cars used to be very, very cheap; a BMW 3 series was about Dhs79,000 (12,000 quid) when I joined, now they start at over Dhs120,000 (18,500 quid) that's an increase of 65% in 7 years! Land Rover Discovery's started at about the same, now they start at something like Dhs140,000!!!
Rents were on average Dhs90,000 in Jumeirah, now they are almost double that. But Emirates provide company housing right? Take the house instead of the allowance and you're safe from rental market fluctuations and the ever increasing costs of keeping the house cool and the plants watered, right? Well, yes, and no. If the costs are outside EKs budgeted figure, they will ask you to move, or pay the difference. Emirates are certainly not immune to rent market forces. It was always a misconception that the Sheikh Ahmed Villas were owned by our very own Shiekh Ahmed. Well, hello! No they're not. Some other greedy Sheikh, also called Ahmed,
could decide to put the rents up and suddenly 248 pilots
could be in the same situation as some other pilots, pay up or move out. Could this happen? Well, it has been rumoured... Any manager care to dispel the rumour?
A booze licence was Dhs100, now it's Dhs150 (for those of you mathematically challenged, that's a 50% increase) and there are many, many more examples of the ever increasingly high cost of living here in DesertDisney.
But, to top it all, the Time Out and What's On magazines were free, you just took the copy you were reading on the flight deck home with you. Now it will cost you your job!
No,
In Limbo, there's no tax at all...
But wait, wasn't there an article, a headline article no less, in the Khaleej Times? Something about the UAE Treasury asking the IMF for assistance in setting up a VAT scheme?
For those of you trying to wade through the pros and cons of the arguments set forth here regarding the Emirates starting salary for an F/O, I think that I can categorically state that if you are the average Joe Bloe with wife, 2.2 offspring and require a moderate standard of living, then the salary is about Dhs 5,000 short of the mark. Anyone care to support that? Or maybe I'll get shot down in flames....
Off to the clinic to join
Cerberus in the queue for a new typing finger...