meritflyer said:
WOW!! People are leaving the industry?!? Duh.. no question as to why. When a professional pilot trains for $50+K then you offer them $20K to start what do you expect. In my industry, if you are offered anything less than $50K to start, you RUN AWAY and we aren't even specialized professionals (medical sales).
Why the hell is flying aircraft any different? I hate to say it but I dont know why people keep accepting such BS salaries from airlines.
I have said this before, but here goes:
Its' one of those jobs every little boy from my generation wanted to do; others included fireman, policeman, etc..... So supply and demand is why. Of course, this is all coming from a guy sick of living the Dilbert cartoon life, and is willing to dump his $70k a year job for jacksquat just to get an office with a view.
Reciprocally on the gender scale, every little girl wanted to be a teacher. That is why my wife get's paid a little over $40k a year with a Masters and 7 years teaching.
Now the "I always wanted to be a pilot" thing is dying off. The airlines are such nickel and dime margins that they cannot afford to really pay alot more. The need for travel is growing as families move apart. We have a problem here! Who knows where it will go.
The industry I am currently in provides a good analogy to what could happen to the airline industry a generation down the road:
30-40 Years ago, big 18-Wheelers were modernizing and they looked cool. Lots of people wanted to be truck drivers, even though the STS (Shiny Truck Syndrome) meant 14 hours a day behind the wheel, sleeping in truck stops, and getting home for a weekend every month or two.
Nowadays, trucks are common and there are fewer and fewer folks with the desire to do it. With the shrinking margins of trucking companies from higher fuel, taxes, tolls, and tightened/reduced Hours of Service limitations, there is no wiggle to pay alot more. There is currently a SEVERE shortage of truck drivers. The U.S. has tried to compensate by shifting 25% of freight to rail. At 6%, the rail system is choked. All of our indicators show that we are in BIG trouble in the coming years. Unlike the airlines, movement of goods is an ABSOLUTE neccesity for a stable economy. With fuel going up and up, and driver shortages increasing....we are in t-r-o-u-b-l-e.
Can you picture this in the air travel industry some day soon? Amazing how motivation governs alot of our economy.