I'm trying to consider the historical perspective as to why pilot salaries were higher some years ago. Pilots flying mail routes in the US recieved up to $1500 per month in the 1920's (10 cents/mile); a fortune at the time. So what has changed?
Post WWI there was a glut of qualified and experienced pilots. Although various governments were attempting to develop air routes and there were still far more pilots than jobs. Aviation was a still a fairly dangerous persuit back then, even if the Germans weren't trying to kill you. Pilots still had to contend with weather and unreliable machinery. Was it the risk factor that led to high wages?
Ther situation was quite similar after the Second World War. There were many experienced and well trained multi-engine pilots with "international experience" available for the expanding airline industry. Were salaries high in relative terms? I understand that they weren't so flash. Perhaps there was an oversupply of pilots and higher paying jobs were attracting ex-aircrew into other industries. My understanding is that during the 1950's-60's efforts by the pilot's unions improved the T&Cs for their members. Under the prevailing industrial laws, pilots were able to use industrial muscle to improve their lot. Note that under US law during this period, airlines were able to sack staff who went on strike.
Airline de-regulation in the 1970's allowed a plethora of new start carriers in the USA. Many of these employed pilots at half the 'going' rate compared to the incumbant airlines (sounds familiar??). Competition with these new airlines provided the spur for American Airlines and United Air Lines to introduce the first "B scale" salary structures. With these, new pilots were given completely different conditions to those on the "historical contracts". This move was not just aimed at pilots, but to cabin crew and ground staff.
Dispite the dynamic state of the de-regulated environment of the the post 1970's and into the 80's, wide-body captains in the US companies were still able to recieve salaries of around $300,000. This compared with the renumeration offered in the regulated European industry. In Australia, the salaries on offer were not as high for domestic or international pilots, but was bloody good coin by community standards (still is) and comparable to that recieved by mid level legal people and medicos (not now).
The salaries recieved by US pilots who were not flying in the 'mainline' carriers was pretty abismal. These people were employed to operate commuter services for the larger carriers and employed many very experienced people form companies like Eastern who had gone out of business in the deregulated environment. The question arises: was the salaries for pilots who flew Convair 550s and the their replacement typs(Saabs etc. and later regional jets) of a similar low level prior to US de-regulation? Did the ready supply of experienced pilots who were unable to get comparable positions at incumbant airlines (due to seniority) cause an oversupply of talent in an expanding regional market and employers were able to capitalise on this? Is this a further example of datal seniority prohibiting an appropriate match between qualifications and experience with job availability?
While I don't profess to know all (or any!) of the answers, it is my hope that we can use this thread to actually go some where with how to improve our conditions. To this end, I hope that I am asking the right questions. Perhaps some one can fill in the blanks and we can all start to get a clearer picture of what has happend, the current state of play and what we can do in the future. The big question in my mind is does a link exist between market regulation and pilot salaries? If so, then what are the dynamics of the interaction between regulation, labour and salaries?I rather suspect that at the GA and commuter level, relative salaries haven't changed a whole lot over the decades. Anyway that you look at it, a wide body captain on $250K is making a fair stack of money. However, there is no doubt that our T&Cs have stagnated in comparison to the rest of the community.
Last edited by Anthill; 21st Sep 2011 at 03:38.