I spent 5 years in college, spent easily over $100,000 in training and tuition (not including room and board). Made $1,100 in 1993, $4,100 in year 1994, $6,800 in year 1995, $11,490 in 1996, $15,000 in 1997, $29,000 in 1998, $54,000 in 1999, $92,000 in 2000, $106,000 in 2001 and I make around $115,000 now in my fifth year at a major. I'm not trying to brag, it's public information.
When my non-flying buddies were out boozing, I was studying for a checkride. When my non-flying buddies were making $80,000 per year in the 'real world', I was digging in my car's ash tray for enough money for a bean burrito and a free water at Taco Bell. When my non-flying buddies took off on European vacations, I'd go down to the library which offered free internet access so I can look at their emailed pictures.
When my non-flying pals were buying high end stereos for their entertainment rooms, I was too proud to admit to my parents that I couldn't afford to replace a broken headset and I figured that a soldering iron and a speaker that I salvaged from an old 13" black and white television would be far as the old CFI budget would stretch.
When my buddies were buying houses, getting married and starting families, I was sitting up in Marquette, MI in December on reserve with 12 other guys in what seemed to be a former crack house that was turned into an airline pilot crash pad.
Then, I got lucky and found a rent-controlled, government housing project in Milwaukee with welfare moms and senior citizens on social security and still had to fudge my income in order to qualify for the minimum income level to qualify for government housing.
Know what it's like to buy a loaf of bread, a pack of store brand bologna and banana's to cover two meals per day for a week?
I continue miss most major holidays, haven't been to a birthday party since college, have no idea if I can make holidays, xmas, thanksgiving or even my own wedding until about a month before.
I also wake up often at 4am eastern time regularly, even though my "body clock" says it's 1am back at home and work a full day. Live in the pacific time zone, but your hotel pick-up is at 4:30am in Boston? Too bad, get up, shower/shave, throw on the uniform and get ready for a early morning dose of northeast corridor flying.
I take a potentially career ending flight physical twice per year and do a potentially career-ending flight check annually.
I get randomly drug tested, sniff tested by security agents, went thru 5 complete FBI background checks in six years. I also get wanded and my bags dug through about 15 to 18 times per month. Oh, and I also have to be very vigilant during layovers for terrorists trying to break into my room and steal my ID and uniform as has happened recently to other flight crew.
I'm also responsible for (sometimes) more than 700 people per day (142 at a time), I'm away from home about 200 hours per month and only paid for about 70.
I'm also responsible for knowing about 60 lbs (I weighed it when I was bored) of manuals, procedures, techniques, regulations and such. If I screw one up bad enough, I lose my job, home and chances of getting hired by another airline is zero.
And the important part -- I'm trained and paid to take a half-broken MD-88 into JFK during a driving snow storm with 1800RVR (captain does everything below that) and a nasty crosswind, do the approach precisely, be able to anticipate, react and recover from a sudden random catastrophic event, land the aircraft in the touchdown zone with a smooth landing, smile and cheefully exclaim "so long sir!" as the passengers deplane, load up and do it all over again.
Oh, and occasionally argue with dispatchers, mechanics, rampers and gate agents about safety of flight issues and be willing to say, 'if it's between flying this unsafe aircraft and losing my job, here's my resignation'.
Yeah, way overpaid I guess...
BTW, the whole thing about the plane flying itself from takeoff to touchdown is pure urban legend. And some MS riverboat captains make more than senior 777 captains. Geez, one of my neighbors is an auto mechanic living in a $450,000 house with an at-home wife.