Did I only earn this much?
Statistically speaking the UK average salary is now £23000pa. An unlicenced engineer can expect to earn about £21000pa with shift and overtime on top of this. So technically speaking, we are below average on pay. These days young lads and lasses don't look for a career in engineering as it is just not cool any more, and the flow of ex-RAF, Fleet Air Arm and Army Air Corps veterans has dwindled to less than a trickle.
Engineers regularly work in excess of 50 hours a week; the place I work for has a system of anualised hours and these shifts consist of either 4 or 5 10.5 hour days with one week of lates, which is 4 x 7.5 hour days and one 6 hour day. We are now required to cover weekends in the winter, so our home life is non-existant. The summer is different in that we work 6 days and have 8 off in one rotation, but we cover lates and nights with 4 x 8 hour shifts. But in the summer no overtime is available. I feel that we are quite hard done by and it time to redress the balance.
So are there any other engineers out there who would like to tell what they earned, or are you all to busy working to contribute? What do other airlime staff feel? Are we underpaid, or do you know different? Is there somewhere else in the UK that pays more, and what about those in General Aviation, where pay is traditionally very poor? Your comments on the back of a £20 note please!
JFD