The tangent stems from an observation that QF short haul pay in particular seems to have FOs at 250-300k while comparing other operators bare base salary alone.

Either marke a comparison of both all in pays (near impossible as its individual) or compare bare basic, but mixing the two and making the comparison is a tad misleading...

And that itself began because someone from overseas was asking about Australian operators on this or another thread.

Compare the average fleet+rank pay.

The figure for 2019 FO 737 was AU$199,000

Today that would be significantly higher with the yearly pay scale increases.

I'd really be surprised if you found any 737 FO's averaging less than 65hrs, if not 70hrs per 28-day roster.

No chance you can get away on MGH of 53.4. You'll get nabbed on your AV days.

No offence but this sounds horrible. What would be the total Duty Hours for a 28 day period of 65+ flight hours? And number of days off?

Surely it depends on how the roster works in terms of short/long duties? My current (non-Qantas) short haul roster for 28 days is 73 hours and has 13 days off. If you fly the Tasman you hit 70 hours in just 10 days.

I think we can get a rough idea of where the different salaries sit in relation to each other if we assume first year in rank pilots who are each doing 65 hours a month and take super and allowances and bonuses and salary sacrifice out of the equation.
I know that those things make a significant difference but calculating it like this provides an idea of what the difference likely is.

A QF Captain year one would take home after tax $179,106 AUD
A Jetconnect Captain year one would take home $134;618 NZD
A QF First Officer year one would take home $124,736 AUD
A Jetconnect First Officer year one would take home $81,152 NZD

I used the online tax office calculators to arrive at these take home figures after adding 11.6 hours pay to the QF base salary to bring them up to 65 hours. The QF pilots would most likely be taking advantage of salary sacrifice in order to lower the tax burden but still, it paints a picture of the relative differences.
To get an even better understanding of the difference I used a ‘cost of living comparison’ website with Sydney and Auckland selected and it said Jetconnect Captains would need an extra $20k NZD ( after tax) per annum to achieve the same lifestyle in Auckland as QF Captains. Jetconnect First Officers fare worse in that they would need an extra $27k NZD ( after tax ) to achieve the same standard of living as QF First Officers who live in Sydney.
Contrary to what an earlier poster said the cost of living in Sydney is higher than in Auckland ( according to this randomly selected website).
Also interesting to me was that a year 1 A320 F/O for Air New Zealand earns about $21k (after tax) more than a Jetconnect First Officer which puts them about $6k behind the standard of living the QF First Officers are achieving but at the same time I don’t know if the Air NZ pilots are earning more than that base at the 65 hour mark. They probably are in which case they would be achieving a similar standard of living to their QF counterparts.
One can only assume that the allowances, bonuses, super contributions,and salary sacrifice effects put QF further ahead in relation to New Zealand based pilots.

At 65hrs an Air NZ Pilot would be doing around 107% of base, which for an A320 Pilot would be about right…. Big rosters come and go, so 5-10% on SH is about right on average. We have a balancing system in place, so you can’t just bid for Tasman/Pacific Is flying and smash out 80 hours in 12 days while your colleagues do 55 in 18 between AKL and WLG.

An 8th Year A320 FO, excluding allowances (as they’re too variable) would need to fly 70hr rosters year round to break $200k Taxable.

Thanks Zilch.
So to fit into the scenario above, if a year 1 A320 First Officer flew 65 hrs a month for a year what would be their after tax salary excluding allowances/ bonuses/ super ?

Soseg came in here talking about how much QF pilots get paid.

I know that QF have farmed out a lot of the flying to various subsidiaries but has having a go at fellow pilots ever solved that problem?

You have a common enemy.

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Around $151k Gross, $108k Net. That’s PAYE only, no KiwiSaver (super).
Air NZ will match Employee contributions up to 8%, the legal minimum is 3%.

Cheers Framer and Elzilcho, puts a bit of perspective into the mix for a change (must admit the Air NZ thread also has good breakdowns) rather that the usual throwing around of abitary numbers.

Probably more more significant than expected overtime an allowances is the expected progression to command.
Thats a topic for another day but I believe it is/was pretty quick at Air NZ for the bus, and wouldn't be surprised if it was at JC too. That could shift the big picture pay analysis significantly.

A320 Commands got as low as 5-6 years pre-COVID. They’re around 9-10 at the moment, along with 787 FO. I heard JC got as low as 2 years at one point. That in itself should be a massive red flag.
The way our pay structure works, and the fact we shot ourselves on the A321 rate has meant Longhaul FO is generally more lucrative for less time worked than a Junior Bus Command.

When comparing contracts, one definitely needs to have the whole picture. Overtime rates, thresholds, super, per diems, salary steps… it all adds up and can make a massive difference over one’s career.