Contract salaries have always been an interest in the industry. For some reason they have dropped substantialy with the over supply of Pilots in the past couple of years.
Its funny that some P1's on the 1900's these days are earning less than a P1 on a C208 did 3 years ago. Also you can now earn the same flying charters.
I can say that the best paying operators today in SA are NAC and balmoral. I stand to be corrected but they pay their guys in Kabul $340 and day for P1 and $240 for P2 on the 1900's.
NL pays their guys across the board $150.00 a day but their basics are much higher and they get that big basic on and off.
You now compare that to a P1 with one of the well known competitors who also has a contact in Kabul and he earns $120 a day with say R8000.00 basic and his co-pilot $100.
It just goes to show that there is always someone who will take a job no matter what the pay.
You can now compare that guys salary to the salary of a Charter pilot on the 1900 who earns R32 000 a month (fact that many do). If you do the math, you can earn more staying at home than having to put up with the many bad conditions on contract.
Just a pitty that there are more contract jobs these days than Charter.