Uniform - you have noticed the glitch about working for Ryanair! Basically there are no figures published as everyone is on a slightly different deal. You cannot say that working for Ryanair gives 'X' or 'Y' as there as many variations and I think that is deliberate. A friend of mine went to the Berlin Air Show stand recently to discuss going to Ryanair as a DEC. They gave him a very nice glossy brochure with some quite detailed questions answered. The pay bit, however, was very vague. It quoted figures of £90k+ for captains but did not specify how that would be made up or whether it was a maximum or just a theoretical possibility. The only way to know the truth is to have specific figures - ie basic salary, allowances, assumed sectors, sector pay, allowable expenses, death in service benefit, pension, loss of licence provision, tax free elements etc. Without these specific details you are simply not in a position to make a true assessment of the deal. I have never worked for them, but I am inevitably influenced by the countless warnings on PPrune about pilots joining Ryanair with a verbal promise at the interview only to discover their contract was very different after joining. I cannot verify the truth of those accusations but I would certainly want some very specific details before signing anything. The difference with easyJet is that for all the criticism, you know exactly what you are getting from day one. The pay figures are on the website for everyone to see and you cannot complain afterwards as you knew exactly what you were signing up to. I personally much prefer that rather than vague and subsequently deniable promises.
epsilonmiuraised - regarding easyJet, you would be able to apply as a DE FO. You still receive the same sector pay and uniform allowance worth £10,323 gross on 500 sectors a year after Oct 06. Your basic would be £32,801 gross for the first 6 months and £36,445 gross thereafter making total effective gross salaries of £43,124 and £46,768 respectively. You would also receive 7% of those basic figures into your pension fund. My best estimate of your net monthly pay using Microsoft Money (tax code 447L) would be £2,547 for the first 6 months and £2,727 thereafter assuming that you put zero into the pension fund (in order to compare easyJet accurately with Ryanair).
Regarding your employability, if you have less than 500 hours on type but a few hundred hours on the A320, ie you have airline experience as opposed to just self-sponsored type rating, then easyJet would be very interested in you right now. You are exactly what they want so my advice would be to apply right away - they can only say no! It is worth pointing out to them that by the time they interview you, the magic 500 hours multi-crew will have been reached. Type-rated people are very attractive to companies like easyJet so best of luck!
Finally, I should put in a caveat about the figures I have quoted which are slightly more than the figures on easyJet's website. The reason for this is that under the new pay deal, there is an agreement that after Oct 2006 there will be a further 4% increase across the board and that deal will run for a year until Oct 2007. I have quoted the figures from Oct 2006 because realistically that is roughly when anyone applying now will be actually starting.