Addendum:
Not to knock
@B767, but I just couldn't imagine living on $26k. I've been there, being broke sucks balls.
Pilots seem to have lots of days off. If you have fifteen to twenty days off a month. Picking up a three or four day, still leaves you ten days off a month or more. Maybe I'm only saying this coming from having a non-pilot job, where in a normal month you only have a mere eight days off a month, and those are only weekends. As a regional pilot on first year pay, I'd want to avoid the soup line, if I can. And I'd do that by picking up a few extra "shifts", so I could live more comfortably and not have to worry about paying this bill or not. Or not having gas money, or food. That or paying my bills and then not having ANY money left over to do anything, and being a prisoner in my apartment or house. I've done all that before, it sucks. Not going backwards. Not saying that this is B767 situation, just my way of thinking is all. Also having a two income household makes everything better, but I'm only a one income household.