$19,000 including housing etc. A captain who has been at EK 10 years (upgraded in about 3-4 years) takes home about 45,000 AED a month with flying pay.
If you want to include housing in your analysis then you have to also factor in things like the interest/income lost on the 30% you must put down for the house. The fact that the fees etc will require about 3 years of EK's contributions to break even. Add to this the volatile market and it becomes a real mugs game. Yes, if you bought 10 years ago then you may be ahead of the game - though a few guys who bought 9 years ago are STILL behind in value. Which shows just how tenuous the housing market here can be.
To truly compare 'pay' you should really be looking at what you take home versus what it costs you to live. EK will no longer compare to a US carrier.
Their new freighter deal doesn't even touch Korean or the Chinese.