I understand your point spellcheck. I was advocating the cost per seat (or ticket if you like) on an average flight, to try to keep it in some perspective. The numbers are huge in the aviation business & they can be manipulated (as all numbers can) to present a specific perspective. People see an annual salary (the biggest number management can reasonably bring up) & then multiply it by the number of pilots they feel the company has & freak out at the resulting figure. From there it is easy to develop the belief that the annual salary number is too high & agree with management that it is unreasonable & should be lower.
You say you earn $95 per hour. I would imagine that that is $95 for every single hour you are on the job. Pilots hourly rate is for the time from when the aircraft is pushed back for departure till the time the aircraft pulls up at the gate. It does not cover the minimum 1 hour before the first flight that the pilot has to be at work, the time taken between each flight, if the duty involves a series of flights & the minimum 30 minutes after the last flight. It often does not cover any other ground duties the pilot is required to attend, nor any time at home for any work related duties, such as doing amendments to documentation etc.
Also, if we are comparing wages, what is the hourly rate for a surgeon? They do a highly complex job as well, but only have the life of one person at a time in his/her hands. I really don't want to start a 'my job is more important than yours' argument, but perhaps a bigger picture view would be helpful in understanding our position.
Cheers.