Dominican:
You are comparing Middle East pilot's pay with Latin America. In the middle east, what's going on right now, it's a very special cacse. There's a boom in their economies, based of course on oil prices. When your GDP grows so fast, transportation grows accordingly, specially aviation. Airlines have been doubling their size in a matter of months. It's been a crazy growth, so finding qualified people in your own country becomes challenging and that's when they need to pay a lot for a pilot to come overseas. Also remember, it's the middle east, for foreigners it has never been attractive. About Africa, well same deal, there are some airlines growing a lot and they need to attract pilots to come to a ****ty country. In Latin America, the aviation has been growing but at a much more modest rate. There's still plenty of pilots in Latin America. It's all based in the old offer and demand. And yes, it has a lot to do with the cost of living too. Also compare pilot wages to average professionals in the country (true for any LAN). How much does the average banker, lawyer, doctor makes in the US and L America? You were talking about the middle east, well in Dubai right now they need all kinds of proffesionals, not only pilots. Got this friend that has been looking at a job as a financial analyst in dubai (nothing special), and the starting salary is 190k a year plus a bunch of benefits. The day they run out of pilots in L America (I doubt it), that's when wages are going to go up. Meanwhile, it's not being conformist, it's just reality.