The sad thing is that you don't even have to focus only on "professional" jobs to see how much our pay has drifted due south.
- Black Cab drivers on average file revenue at £60,000/year on their self-assessment tax forms. (how much do they really make ? probably more like £90,000). No weekends or nights for the majority of them.
- A strip club waitress was awarded damages of £60,000 for being forced from her job early this year. The amount was based on £5000/month for 1 years lost wages.
- London train drivers starting at £33,000, Eurorail £43,000.
Of professionals,
- A newly graduate lawyer getting a job with a major firm(say a BA-type equivalent for pilots) starts at £100,000/year.
Unfortuantely too many pilots enjoy the job too much to realise that we are in fact under-paid. It's not a crime to enjoy your job and get paid for it !
It all boils done to whether you accept airline pseudo management that thinks modern day pilots are less skilled these days as a result of advanced aircraft computerisation (modern bus drivers). They like to ignore the fact that we have a £1 billion worth of litigation at our hands every day we go flying if we get it wrong through neglect or unprofessionalism. It's time we reminded them that our salaries do not reflect the level of responsibility or the life-disruption's we suffer from being away 2/3rd of our life.