Actually, what they are Paying is fair enough for the Aircraft type, the operation, etc. That is, before the 'mandatory' salary sacrifice is taken out and as a result you drop below the minimum Air Pilot award rates ( Minimum salary + turbojet addition to minimum + copilot instrument addition = early/mid $60's for this aircraft type, no? Why not just pay that for your F/O's then?).
What I don't find acceptable is People paying (or Companies charging, however you want to look at it), to get the job, thus for the first two years your take home pay becomes less than a City Bus driver (actually $75K probably is as well, good on the Bus Drivers).
I understand that this was the industry norm a decade ago. To be principled about it meant you missed out. Now, through no shortage of hard work and invaluable time spent away from their families, Pilot reps around the country (Jetstar, Cobham, Virgin… just to name a few), have managed to make it largely a thing of the past. The trade off might be that in some companies you might start on a lower wage for a few years, but its ABOVE the minimum award rates.
Then after all of that effort, that people would
still be willing to Pay an enormous amount of good money for a pretty useless endorsement - with a company thats still not completely out of its start up phase - just so you can fly a jet...
That they pay above the McDonald-esque rates of the US Regionals is no justification. Well, not to me anyway. Cheers all.