Why pilot positions are not based on a fixed salary
 

What are the advantages/disadvantages of having pilot pay based on the hours flown. Why not make it salaried?

Cheaper and greater flexibility

Most airlines see pilots as a "non-productive" employee. And lets face it, we are not the ones making money for the airline. If you dont work you make less money, because you are less productive.

An office employee gets paid a standard salary because he/she will stay after hours, and in many airlines not get paid for extra hours. So you get paid to work 9 hours a day, and actually work 12.. Now thats productivity. Dont get me wrong, I myself am a pilot and I wish we got paid standard salaries. It just doesnt add up for airlines.

And the other reason that they dont pay pilots fixed salary... because they can :E

It is tradition. Also in larger airlines there is often a great variation in the number of hours worked. When I retired I was an A320 captain and flying an average of 90 hours a month. I could have been a 767 captain making a higher hourly rate but would have only been flying 65 hours a month because of the trips they flew. Those numbers could change at any time based on the needs of the company. Why would you pay two people the same when one works almost 50% more hours?

But in the same vein wouldn't a 767 captain then want to bid the A320 and as long as his seniority allowed him to - that would entail retraining costs and scheduling issues for the airline - not to mention the dissatisaction and discontent b/w the various pilots on AC types. Wouldn't a salaried position eliminate those challenges?

But I have yet to see pilots demanding this in any contract negotiation. Most center around hourly pay rates. Presumably the thinking is that with open time one can max out and earn the highest amount possible (though burning yourself out with all the flying) but why not demand a salary instead of an hourly rate.

Actually, there are fixed salary positions. From the answers til now it is mainly a thing found in US airlines and from there it spread across the globe. However over here in europe i have been flying mainly on fixed salary with overtime payment.

The difference is semantics though. And of course the safety of earning at least the fixed salary, even if you fly less than the included hours, which is the case during at least 4 months during the winter, with the current reduction in fleet size probably the whole next year. But from what i understand there are often guaranteed hours in the hourly payrate airlines as well, which amounts to the same thing.

Why managers don't get paid by result?
Lets say that company is loosing money and manager has to pay to a company...
:}

If you go back far enough (or look at a legacy carrier) duty pay was an "extra", often taxed at a much lower rate than salary (if at all) & was therefore a very nice little fillup to a probably more than adequate basic salary.

Fast forward to the brave new world of Ryanair etc, where the basic salary is relatively small, or in the case of 3/4 of their employees (sorry "service providers" ) non existant. So no fly= no pay / sick= VERY sick ! :{

For me, I think we should all be paid the same, & thereby provide an incentive for crewing/rostering to do their job properly and use us efficiently.
The current system is also abused in some companies by those who manipulate it to have all the longest sectors etc, thereby creating extra work for a crewing Dept.
Far simpler to say "I am available, use me/abuse me as much as you legally can & if I have a quiet month it's your fault but why should I pay for it".
That way you also have an idea how much you will earn each month, rather than a system where it can vary between b@gger all & 10,000€ at random, depending on month of the year/sickness/ the ineptness of a Commercial Dept or Crewing Dept.

In my company we fly on fixed salaries. Any overtime is given in extra days off later that period (week/month/year depending).
Works for us. You always know what you get at the end of the month. If the company decides to use 3 different types to fly to JFK and the result is a 7 day layover, you don't feel it in your pay.
Everybody is bidding for the least flighthours :)

It also means that the airline doesn't have to manage the pilot properly. If you don't work the max, YOU don't get paid(the charter companies love this one). If your salary is fixed and they don't fly you efficiently, you get money for nothing. They don't like that!