Rank: F/O
Current a/c type: A320
Years in service: 1
Type of airline (name if you’re brave!): European charter
Base country: Germany
Hours per month (average): 50
Monthly salary (before tax): 2800 €
Monthly salary (after tax): 2000 €
Additional payments: block hour pay
Any benefits?: staff travel
Happy (yes/no): happy with the colleagues, pay and roster are pretty crappy however

Rank: FO
Current a/c type:B787
Years in service:2
Type of airline (name if you’re brave!): on of the ME3
Base country: N2515 E05130
Hours per month (average): around 80
Monthly salary (before tax): EUR 8600
Monthly salary (after tax): EUR 8600
Above including basic salary, hourly pay, per diems and basic allowances.
Any benefits?: plenty, housing allowance, schooling allowance, staff travel, etc.
Happy (yes/no):Yes, very much so.

Rank: FO
Current a/c type: B737
Years in service: 3
Type of airline (name if you’re brave!): Its a Bluebird that flies cargo
Base country: Belgium
Hours per month (average): 30
Monthly salary (before tax): 5500€
Monthly salary (after tax): give or take 3000€
Additional payments: nop
Any benefits?: literally 0, no paid sick days, no pension, no insurances, -Other benefits: 99% of weekends off, holidays (christmas etc.) off
Happy (yes/no): 6 out of 10

Rank: Captain
Current a/c type:
Years in service: 2
Type of airline (name if you’re brave!): Military training
Base country: Gulf
Hours per month (average): 15
Monthly salary (before tax): £10K
Monthly salary (after tax): £10K
Additional payments: Holidays are paid
Any benefits?: Housing, all bills, food, servants, lots of holiday, BUPA etc
Happy (yes/no): No, it pays well because it is frankly awful living in the sandpit.

wow... an eye-opener..!
Years ago I thought i'd like to be a commercial pilot, circumstances drove me in another direction...


Base country.. any (depends on contract location )
hours /month - average 45/wk, 180/month
monthly salary - varies a bit depending on location - last contract €14000/m before tax €14000 after tax.
benefits - accommodation paid, per-diem, one return flight home per contract.
downside - sometimes long breaks between contracts, so careful financial management required.
happy - absolutely, gimme a desk anyday.. !

It does seem that the job has turned into a vocation, with salaries to match!

Rank: SFO
Current a/c type: a330
Years in service: 12
Type of airline (name if you’re brave!): UK charter
Base country: UK
Hours per month (average): 70
Monthly salary (before tax): £7100 inc duty pay
Monthly salary (after tax): £5000 after voluntary deductions
Additional payments: OT when available
Any benefits?: Good(by modern standards)pension, medical,LoL,Life Ins,generous leave.
Happy (yes/no): Yes, in as much as nothing I have seen on offer in aviation has made me leave. Going part time shortly will make a massive difference to lifestyle.

Rank: FO
Current a/c type: CL605
Years in service: 0.5
Type of airline (name if you’re brave!): Major UK BizJet AOC
Base country: UK
Hours per month (average): 20-30
Monthly salary (before tax): £5000
Monthly salary (after tax): circa £3500

Additional payments: £500-£1200 per month tax-free per-diem depending on how many duty days

Any benefits?: Pension, LOL, Medaire, Private Health, 28 days holiday etc etc, pretty stable roster, nice hotels, good colleagues, excellent standards in company - run like a professional airline

Happy (yes/no): Pretty much (significant improvement over previous position in a variety of ways)

Rank: Captain
Current a/c type: A320
Years in service: 1
Type of airline (name if you’re brave!): HNA Group "regional" carrier
Base country: China
Hours per month (average): 55 (within 15 days, that is!)
Monthly salary (before tax): dunno, a lot (tax 45%!)
Monthly salary (after tax): 14100 US$
Additional payments: 8000 US$ p.a. commuting allowance
Any benefits?: 30 days on, 30 days off
Happy (yes/no): Yes. 30/30 got my life back. Air pollution will ensure it isn't too long, though

Rank: FO
Current a/c type: B737NG
Years in service: 1,5 years on present job
Type of airline (name if you’re brave!): GOL
Base country: Brazil
Hours per month (average): 55-65 nowadays due to economic downturn. On better days used to be 65-75.
Monthly salary (before tax): Brazil is crazily taxed (around 35% of gross salary)
Monthly salary (after tax): 7000-10000BRL (2000-3000USD on current exchange rate) depending on how many hours you fly per month.
Additional payments: 1500-2000BRL (400-600USD) on per diems tax free per month
Any benefits?: 30 paid leave days per year, 13th month salary, staff travel for employee/family on more than 30 airlines worldwide and year-end bonus if the airline performs well.
Happy (yes/no): Yes. It's a pretty good airline to work for (good training, good maintenance and safety standards, rosters got much better recently, nice crews and working environment) although there is room for improvement on many aspects. The problem is Brazil is in a terrible economic situation (so are all the airlines in the country) and quality of life is not good here (insane violence everywhere, terrible public services and corruption on all government departments). Also time for command upgrade is very long (at least 12 years nowadays for a new hire) and there is no pay increase based on time working for the company.

Rank: TRE
Type: B777
Airline: UAE
Base Country: UAE
Hrs/month (avg): 100+ credit hours for the foreseeable future
Monthly salary (tax free): $US16500 inc TRE and based on 88hrs flight pay.
Additional: Overtime at $US175/hr, maybe a profit share (this year 5 weeks pay)
Benefits: Villa supplied-although subject to short notice move at the company's behest, 1 x confirmed J/F per family member, unlimited ID90, Education Allowance (meets about 75-80% of costs), Provident Fund 10% to 10 years then 15% after 10 years. 6 weeks leave-but you will never get it, and a maximum of 3 weeks at once, but only one free ticket/year.
Happy (Y/N): Enjoy my job and the people I work with, Great Variety and great aircraft, Compulsory overtime defeats the concept of overtime i.e. it is supposed to be optional, Current rate of effort unsustainable long term-serious health implications, salary increase not in line with inflation, good family security situation. Everything's a balancing act, and it still works for me.

Rank: Senior F/O

Current a/c type: Boeing 747-400/-8F

Years in service: 11

Type of airline (name if you’re brave!): Legacy, Asia

Base country: Fragrant Harbour

Hours per month (average): 70

Monthly salary (before tax): 22,000 euros per month

Monthly salary (after tax): 18,500 euros per month after tax.

Additional payments: housing included in above figure (about 7800 euros to pay rent or off your mortgage, your choice). And a 13th month for Christmas. Total annual package about 265,000 euros per year (subject to 17% tax)

Any benefits?: Everything you would expect from a legacy airline. All the old school stuff: 4 free (tax only) sectors in business class long haul per year confirmed for the whole family. First class ID90 staff travel with our own airline, economy with pretty much every other airline. Full education for kids including boarding school abroad. Plenty more perks..

Happy (yes/no): Yes. Although our hard earned terms and conditions are under serious threat by the race to the bottom. Entry standards used to be 5000 plus hours with previous command time, now it's 160 hours, a pulse, and an abundance of hair gel. You do the math - a hull loss is inevitable.

I fully expect that I am in contention for the highest paid First Officer gig in the industry at the moment, but for this !!!!ty/knackering/long term fatigue job, I wouldn't get out of bed for less.

I can honestly say, if I wasn't being paid a MINIMUM of 250,000 euros per year, I would not entertain this line of work. I would be far happier and live longer doing something else.

As it stands... I'm on a good wicket. And happy all things considered.

Having just scanned thru this thread I'm amazed at the poor pay that many of us tolerate. The race to the bottom is almost complete.
Although I don't envy Flying Clog's location, his remuneration is what we all should be getting, or somewhere close. Roll on retirement, who on earth would want to be a pilot today?

Rank: FO
Current a/c type: A320
Years in service: 1.5
Type of airline (name if you’re brave!):
Base country: Italy
Hours per month (average): 65 avg (80+ in summer)
Monthly salary (before tax): 5500 euros
Monthly salary (after tax): 4500 euros ( pay rise of 700 net next year, then another 1000 net 2 years later )
Additional payments:
Any benefits?: LoL, pension, staff travel
Happy (yes/no): Yes

The above post from Italy whilst encouraging shows how difficult it is to compare. For a single guy paying normal tax and social security you would have to be on around 12000 euros a month to have a net of 6200 in Germany (using an internet tax calculator). Obviously if you are paying off loans, married etc you may pay less tax, but then you are still unlikely to be out buying Ferraris with your spare change. An answer to macdo might be that some of the happy pilots are people who can afford to go part time, massively increasing what they take home per hour and having some quality of life.

Italy is kind of heaven when it comes to taxes for pilots, true.

To be fair there are some tax breaks for working unsocial hours in Germany as well as being able to set off commuting and other job related expenses again dependant on individual circumstances. But it demonstrates there are dramatic differences in taxation across Europe. Germany does not seem particularly attractive either on pay or tax. Pilot's preferential taxation as artists in France is one somewhere in the deep recesses of my memory. The interesting one is retrospective taxation as with Ryanair and perhaps some of our colleagues apparently working tax free in places they are unlikely to retire. If there is a double taxation agreement and evidence of tax paid then fine....if not I would not bet against interesting times when the tax authorities come calling should you return to Europe at some point in the future.

Rank:Flight Instructor, so no rank
Current a/c type: SEP
Years in service:3
Type of airline (name if you’re brave!):flight school
Base country: Europe
Hours per month (average):Can be 3 hours, can be 30 hours.
Monthly salary (before tax):
Monthly salary (after tax): 530 EUR
Additional payments: 200 eur per month for housing
Any benefits?: pension, medical....
Happy (yes/no):yes

Rank: Captain
Current a/c type: A320
Years in service: 5.5
Type of airline (name if you’re brave!): Orange LCC
Base country: Netherlands
Hours per month (average): 80
Monthly salary (before tax): €10.700
Monthly salary (after tax): €5.800
Additional payments:None
Any benefits?: LoL, pension 5%, staff travel.
Happy (yes/no): Yes since I'm home after 5 years of commuting.

Rank: FO
Current a/c type: B737
Years in service: 1 year in this company
Type of airline (name if you’re brave!): Scandi charter/cargo
Base country: Finland
Hours per month (average): 65-70
Monthly salary (before tax): €3950
Monthly salary (after tax): €2800 (~€3800 with the additional below)
Additional payments: Tax free per diem, Sundays double salary
Any benefits?: LoL, staff travel, fairly good state pension system
Happy (yes/no): Otherwise yes, but the salary should definetely be better