Pleased to see some sensible consideration about what a realistic pilot pay scale should be. Unfortunately, the fact is that pilot salaries are ONLY, SOLELY, PURELY, ABSOLUTELY what a pilot or group of pilots can induce their employer to pay.
Here is some background information on the subject of pilot pay checks for our non-pilot members. It is important because it answers the question of, How did pilot salaries get so high in the first place?
This rate of pay is basically determined by supply and demand. The airlines are required by certification and federal regulation to put a certain size pilot crew on an aircraft. This crew must meet certain (very minimal) experience requirements (even the ATP is a joke but it is all we have as a base standard). The airline wants to pay the pilots as little as possible (quite sensibly). However, other factors usually prevent the airline from using minimally qualified pilot crew members.
Assuming there are plenty of pilots available the airlines then choose pilot employees considering several requirements. This is what complicates the process. If an airline trains its own pilots it needs to make sure its applicants can pass training otherwise it wastes a lot of money on training failures. The company may have minimum experience levels agreed with its insurance carrier. Most companies want people with stable personalities because they realise work conflicts can be dangerous or counter productive. Several more selection criteria can be added to this list. You will recognise them as the basic items covered during airline pilot selection. Other corporate planning factors also may enter into the considerations. The applicants age may be a factor because it will be reflected in the number of pilots retiring in a certain year and the company wants to smooth out this curve.
Importantly, these selection procedures are not common to all airlines. For example, a start up airline may not be interested in training its own pilots. It will insist on previous experience on its aircraft type for applicants. Some airlines insist on a type rating on its aircraft as proof of dedication and basic operating ability.
The situation varies almost directly with the size of the airline. A small carrier or an attractive carrier can probably find a number of pilots willing to get type ratings before applying for a job. A large carrier, in an expansion mode, will not be able to find enough type rated applicants so it must accept non-rated pilots and train them itself.
The supply of pilots varies over time. It depends on the basic cost of civilian pilot training (ie can I afford the cost of qualifying as a pilot which must, of course, take the future benefits into account). It depends on military demand, retention policies and retirements (the old question. Do I join the airforce to get pilot training or pay for it myself?). It also depends on the movement of previously employed commercial pilots into to and out of of the labour pool because of furloughs and airline failures and cut-backs.
Here is where the fun really starts. Firstly, the supply side. The supply side basically always lags behind the demand side, both on the up slope and the down slope. Airline pilot training takes time. Usually several years from commencing training to a producing a usable pilot with a few thousand hours flight time, some jet or t'prop time on multi-engined aircraft. What DOES happen is that the potential pilot who had always tended towards a pilot career sees the airline industry in one of its expansion modes. Supply is bad for the airlines and the pay checks are really getting up there. He decides to become a pilot. If he is very lucky, three or four or more years later, after suffering and working for peanuts, he finally gets that junior co-pilot position. Now the airline industry hits a bump, fuel price increase, Gulf War, Sept11th, whatever. He gets furloughed. DOES THIS SOUND FAMILIAR. Now the airlines see big supply and small demand. Guess what happens in the next round of contracts negotiations (or in the next bankruptcy threat). Pilot pay dives. Under these conditions nobody but the most dedicated (or perhaps most stupid) train as pilots. Now the demand side kicks in. Three years down the road things get better for the airlines, they recall their furloughees. Three more years down the road they need new hires because of retirements. Viola! a pilot shortage. Pilot pay goes up again. DOES THIS SOUND FAMILIAR.
Now, how does this tie in with what a pilot really gets paid. If the situation was totally laissez-faire each individual pilot would negotiate his own pay rate, say bi-annually, with his employer. This is what happened in the early days of aviation. Unfortunately, it became rapidly apparent that there were severe problems with this approach. Business owners have not changed over the years. Many early aviation managers could force pilots to perform dangerous duty under the threat of reprisal by pay check or firing. In a nutshell this safety problem led to the formation of pilot unions and government regulation. Of course, as soon as pilots were organised and protected as a group the group became the instrument for negotiating pay rates. In the "earlier" days of aviation this was a relatively minor factor. The airline industry was regulated, airlines were virtually guaranteed a profit and so they had no incentive to severely limit pilot pay checks. Around the time the pilot unions were formed the "seniority system" came into being which, although generally agreed to be imperfect, has been accepted over the years as the norm for the industry. Under this system, the senior pilots get the choice of which aircraft they fly with the size of the pay checks being proportional to the size of the aircraft. Note that the size of the paycheck being tied to the size of the aircraft has nothing to do with safety or responsibility. The argument is that flying the larger aircraft is more productive for the company and is hence worth more pay. For example, two pilots flying a 200 seat aircraft are more productive than two pilots flying a 100 seat aircraft for the same time and hence deserve more pay. No safety , responsibility or skill considerations, just productivity for the company.
The introduction of union contracts and the regulation of aviation distorted the "free market" concept of pay rates in the airline industry but it did confer certain benefits (here I must acknowledge exceptions which intrude in any large system). The first benefit was safety. Airlines, being guaranteed a profit, were under no restraint on spending for excellent pilot training and aircraft maintenance. Pilot status led to the conditions for the safety of flight being left with the crew rather than the company. Because of regulation the aviation industry had a very stable if somewhat restricted operating environment (I remember seeing a group of excited pilots clustered around a company notice board. We had just been assigned a new route, Chicago to Grand Rapids!). All of this changed with deregulation.
Under deregulation the airlines were no longer protected. Cost controls became vitally important and the pressure was felt through employee pay checks.
OK, this is probably boring for most of you. I will continue to bore you later if that;s OK. I need a coffee break.