Regarding the pay/housing issue during training:
At my first airline, they paid us a 65 hr guarantee from our first day on property, as well as a $450 housing allowance. They also paid for our hotel room during simulator training, double occupancy for FOs. At this airline, they paid us a one-time per diem check, as well as double occupancy housing the entire training cycle.
Now I can't really say which was better. According to most, at the first job you could say that they paid us during training, but at $19.55/hr and 65-hr guarantee that didn't go far to get a place in Chicago.
Now with the per diem check, if you lived conservatively in training, you could get by. You'd probably need a bit in the bank to really enjoy yourself.
From these experiences of mine, I don't have a clue how anyone can survive two months of new-hire training without any pay or housing allowance. I'm dumbfounded how anyone could justify it.
I can understand the reasoning behind a company making a decision to do this, however. Wrong or right, I understand it. Airline training costs are extremely high. In the tens of thousands of dollars... manuals, charts, simulator time, and the rest adds up. The company is taking a chance with the airline trainee that they might not finish their training. If they do not, and wash out, then the company eats the cost.
This policy of not paying new-hires needs to change. I think a more acceptable practice would be a training contract. One or two year pro-rated contract saying if you leave early, then you must re-emburse the company the cost of your training. This keeps employees from getting time and bolting in a few months, and gives some insurance to the company so that they can pay the guarantee, per diem, and housing.
Hopefully we'll see a paradigm shift in the near future leaning more towards "taking care of your employees."
