But muh uncle is a millionaire and he only has a GED! Derp derpy DERP DERP DURRRRP.
Just for the sake of an experiment here I dug out my high school yearbook and looked at the 3 people on either side of me. Thanks to the wonders of Facebook--and me being something of a friend • (wait... that word may get censored... rhythms with "bore")--I know exactly what each one of these people is doing. I graduated from high school in 2000, so here we are, 13 years later and this is how it worked out.
I went to school in a rather academic town (3 colleges and universities plus 2 more in the towns on either side) so all 6 of those people went to a college of one sort or another.
One of them got a 2 year degree and is currently a chef at a hotel in Philly. I happen to know that this guy started out waiting tables and then at the very bottom end of the cooking chain. Judging by the pictures of the apartment he shared with a bunch of other guys in his photo albums in 2004 through about 2009 (when he got married) he wasn't making very much.
The other 5 all got four year degrees.
One of them, who was in ROTC through high school went to West Point and is currently an Army Engineer. He made Captain the same time I made "captain" in 2008. I have no idea what he makes exactly but the GOArmy website says he should be making between 60k and 80k a year. Not too bad, but his first couple of years as a LT he was making 30k or so (according to the website) which is hardly better than second year pay at a regional.
One became an CPA and was working at a Liberty Tax place in the middle of nowhere Kansas (his wife is from there) right out of school. I would guess he wasn't making very much to begin with.
Another one (the girl that sat next to me in home room for 4 years) went to med school. She finished her residency in 2011 and is now a OBGYN ("oh look at the baby"...
scrubs reference). I would guess she is making ok money now, but we all know that a) med school leaves huge bills and b) residency doesn't pay very well so right out of school she wasn't doing much better than a regional pilot.
There remaining 2 both went to grad school. One is an engineer for McKinsey making tons of money. He actually worked for them for 2 years right out of his undergrad and made good money (100k plus I think), then they paid for his masters and now he's making very good money. However, he's on the road more than most pilots I know.
The other guy went to grad school and got a degree in Latin. He still works in the Barnes and Nobel (as a salesperson) he worked at during his undergrad and grad school. I would guess he's not making too much.
So, of those six, five of them are making ok to good money right now, but only one of the six (the engineer) made good money right out of school.
Don't get me wrong... I think a first year FO is worth way more than they are paid, but I don't think they are lagging that far behind most other careers. The problem I think is that once you get past the first few years pay (and especially once you get in to the captain scales) we do SO much better than most other professions that the disparity in the first few years of pay stands out so much.
