Pilots are the best paid
 

The Office of National Statistics say that pilots are the best paid profession, hope the CEO,s don't read this or we will be done for.

http://www.ons.gov.uk/ons/dcp171776_286266.pdf

Read page 6

Another bunch of imbeciles basing their study on pay/flight hour...

Wouldn't surprise me to find out that's who's behind this conclusion! :)

strange numbers, but if you take average 40h/week x 52 weeks = 95.000 Pounds a year. I know many guys doing more than that at end of carreer . and definitively CEOs doing at least 10 times more than that.
But I have not read the full report that might explain this.

It was argued for years that off shore rig workers were, amongst the best paid. But........when you actually broke it down to an hourly rate, it equated, in some cases, to minimum wage.

Those statistics again.........:bored:

A perfect example of lies, damn lies and statistics. What utter tosh.

Garage mechanics are paid far more for a job monkeys can do. £120 per hour to change the oil in our local dealership, apparently.

Plumbers charge £60.

Wait until the FTOs get hold of this!

Statistics are very dangerous tools if they're taken out of context. In the examples you cited, in the first case you're not paying £120 to the mechanic as hourly wage, you're also paying for the whole workshop including tools and machines that the mechanic needs to perform the work you need. In the case of the plumber, again how many hours of the plumber's time was required to perform the work? Since he probably doesn't share your living quarters, he actually had to get to and from your house and that might take some time. Then there's tools and so forth and so on.

To get back on topic, professional pilots spend a significantly higher amount of hours at work than just the actual flight hours they log. Simply dividing average pay per average hours flown/month is just plain idiotic.

Best paid? More like most taxed!!!

Yep, absolute nonsense. One wonders where they sourced their info as they evidently think we only work from chock to chock. :ugh:

No other career requires as much investment as flying := Giving pilots an average wage is utter rubbish, we already take the job of the navigator, radio man, engineer and pilot (probably someone can add something else to that too!). Live of many men, woman, kids are in the pilots hands. Higher health risks and safety issues, look at the life insurance for a pilot too. It only makes sense that pilots should get a good wage, the pay is way too low already.

I remember in a paper or somewhere it said that 85% of statistics is false or misleading so, hardly will take this seriously, but this news will probably be another great reasons to squeeze the pilots even more.... :ugh:


We need to take action to get pilot right back! :ok:

What they fail to consider is that an airline pilot can only fly 900 hours a year and the hourly rate is for scheduled block flying hours not duty hours which can easily reach 1500 hours per year. So at 900 hours a year and £45 an hour a pilot can earn £40500 a year. £40500 divided by 1500 duty hours a year is more like £27 an hour. Then consider the £100000 loan you have to payback at that untaxed rate. A typical flight training loan repayment is £1200 a month so at the REAL £27 an hour rate you'll need to do 45 duty hours a month just to service the loan. So really a true comparison for you is to add those 45 'cost' hours to each duty month which gives 2040 hours - divide the £40500 by 2040 which gives an actual hourly rate 'comparing apples with apples - pilots with waiters' of £19.85.

Hope BALPA rebuts this statistical rubbish - an opportunity to tell the real story!

This whole thing beggars belief - how can a responsible government agency such as the ONS come up with such bolleaux?!

This nonsense wants stamping on - I for one am writing a letter to my MP informing him of the facts! Suggest others do likewise!

I dread to think of O'Leary spouting off about this - what planet are these people on?

Does it actually say that the £44.49 is per block hour?

Pilots are generally paid quite well. Just not as much as they used to be.

Can anyone find me a lawyer who only charges £ 45 per hour? For that matter, a surgeon, accountant... the list goes on.

Pilot wages are horrid for what this career is! Train drivers get paid more, and invest less and do less in their job then pilots! We need an increase in the pay / benefits, get them back up! We do like 4 peoples jobs in a high risk environment, ect ect... The pay has got to be way higher! :ok: way way higher! :}

As long as young wannabe types are footing the bill for type ratings and flying right seat for free or for peanuts, the salary trend in this industry is gonna continue its spiral.

Herod, as described above, you are mistaking what someone charges and what they earn. It's like confusing revenue and profit.

My calculations
 

I just checked my flying hours / Duty hours for the previous 12 months.

I averaged 74.66 hours per month block time and duty time was 160 hours per month.

My pay is 7000 pounds per month :-

93.75 block hour / 43.75 duty hour

Does not count layovers away from home that would be something like 432 hours per month = 16.20 per hour

My pay has gone down over the last 5 years from 9300 per month :( ;(

432 thats about 18 days not home :eek: and for £16 per hour, see thats not right in my books, for what you sacrifice, family time, hard work, ect. Seems like everyone is taking the biscuit....

Ah lads, stop bickering about misunderstandings about pay and fees. As was mentioned, this is all about a complete misunderstanding by the ONS on how we are paid in this industry. Of course they are looking at block hours and not duty, otherwise it makes no sense. Yes, pilots are paid a reasonable wage but nothing like the money earned by executives and other businessmen. Remember, gentlemen, we are not all working for BA...

Well here's the video....
Comment is free, don't be shy.

Perhaps we should also take into account that these stats are compiled by civil servants who probably (erroneously) regard the piloting profession as glamorous and overpaid and therefore with a degree of envy.

Must say i find people on here comparing their salaries with what a surgeon could earn is laughable how can you even begin to compare what is basically operating a piece of machinery with the level and skill and training a surgeon is required to have?

Even if the stats were correct pilots are still underpaid. Professionals are paid for their skill and expertise rather than the amount of hours they work for.

My friend is a year in at EZY. He would agree, he is the best paid person in is 2nd job at a courier dispatch office.

Have the utmost respect for train drivers but anyone fancy a 35 hour week?

Train Driver Pay

During a period of unemployment as pilot I looked into becoming a train driver but was above their upper age limit of 45 which applied at the time!

I think they worked it out like;

£45 x 35 hours per week x 48 weeks per year = £75,600.

Last year they put us behind upper Government Officials, Company Directors and Medicine and gave us an annual salary, across the profession, of £75K. For an average, taking into account FO and captain, regional turboprop and legacy long haul etc, I think £75k sounds about right.

I have yet to meet a pilot who believes they are paid enough!

Perhaps the Ryanair contract pilots would tell us what they are paid per duty hour over an average year?

I'd imagine the tongue in cheek statement helps clarify the fact that FR contract pilots aren't paid per duty hour, but per block hour?

I believe that the lowest is now €40 per hour on a Storm Contract?? Average hours for FOs in 2013 will more than likely be 600.

On a separate note, basic salary for a permanent contract (FO) is €20K. Soon it will be €0. I'm pretty sure it would still guarantee an overwhelming amount of applications for their SSTR scheme.

£35K, including salary, is pretty good. I earned £23K 'all in' flying 757s in the UK this year with no benefits and definitely no pension :{

I think the 75K is an average for BA and VS, only because almost every other pilot in the UK is now self employed through an agency and as such, probably not classified as a Pilot with ONS.

205 EUR Net /hr based on 800 hrs/year.(includes bonuses)/(without bonus:175eur).

Welcome to china:E

First of all, those statistics clearly show that the inflation index is a BIG LIE.

I mean... Are they kidding? We have now more purchasing power?

If they use pounds per hour as a computed value from pounds per year, then we are the best paid indeed. However, they should exclude per diems from the figure, which they have probably included. That money is not for working, it is for not being at home like any other citizen. It is another story.

But I don't believe the executives make less than us. That's rubish. By the way, when are they going to invent low cost executives?

They have obviously made sweeping generalisations (using a particularly large broom), and probably uninformed ones at that, to get the results about pilot's pay. It is likely that similarly flawed assumptions have been made about other professions and trades which I would suggest places the whole report into the realm of "the really rather meaningless".

Pay is one thing but a lot of guys, including myself, started some years ago at -160.000 euro's. I believe many guys doing their training right now are down almost 180.000 euro's. (Not including a typerating/hrs!!!)

If you’ve been with your airline over a decade, you may recognise some of these tasty numbers, but for those that have ventured into flying in more recent years or been laid off and rejoined airlines, the T&Cs are now a world away.

In short, there has been a massive step change in T&Cs that has been portrayed as being for cadets but will in reality seep entirely through the RHS and then the LHS. We’re in the realm of £30k RHS and £60k LHS going forwards compared to what has been more like double those numbers, and all new entrants need to be fully cognisant of the new playing field . It is not just a recession issue.

FANS, in general, new entrants don't give a monkey's uncle. They don't see it as pounds, shillings and pence; they see opportunity, big shinny jets and a couple of stripes on their shoulders. This isn't cynicism, it's reality. You do occasionally meet the odd guy who has thought out the process and worries about the economic reality of it all but, by and large we are dealing with debt free, mortgage free, family free individuals who just want to fly aeroplanes. It's not until they go out and try and start a life that they realise that what they have simply won't cut it. As I say this is a general synopsis. Unfortunately a large section of wannabees have been forced to or have had the good sense to buy into the reality of all this. They have been forced to stay away. There of course are the others that testify to horror stories, holding down two jobs, sleeping on floors, selling what they own just to get by.

True, that would make most guys feel depressed, I was reading in the paper that O'Leary was having a rant about how he wants to make standing places in the planes by removing last ten rows, so the ticked for those seats would only be like a few quid, "seat belts wont safe you in a crash" was his argument...

But the main thing that caught my eye was him saying "Its just a bloody bus with wings", I think that explains his views on pilots and that they are at best just 'bloody' bus drivers :ugh: Wait, by that logic it must mean the space shuttle is just a bloody van/lorry with a rocket on it then???? :} Whats interesting is I wonder what 'bus' company gave them a profit of £477 mil in the last 6 month?! (Im sure their pilots saw A LOT of that)

That attitude of bus drivers really sucks, its unreal for our wages to be matching theirs (im sorry if it sounds big headed or rich) but its not a job for anybody, its limited, we are the privileged few to know the pleasure of flying, its a dream job for many, it takes so much commitment, work, money...To be poor/broke with mass dept and working for peanuts at the end isnt a dream! it isnt a life...