joepilot

We don't get paid what we are WORTH, we are paid what we can NEGOTIATE. Support your union.

CX500T

This. So much this.

Hawkerdriver1

If money was my number one priority, I would have completed real estate licensing, like my twin brother did , back in 1986. Fast forward to today, he averages 5X my annual income, per month, as a real estate broker in San Diego. Happy for him as well as my own career choices.


HD

PipeMan

Clearly, piltos job do not pay that much. You just showed that.

JohnBurke

If a real-estate broker were to make five million a year, and a pilot were to make one fifth that, the pilot would be making a million a year, which is not a bad wage by any stretch.

One ought not make stupid assumptions in absence of fact, or read into a statement what's not there. Simply because one person makes a fifth of what another makes, that fifth isn't necessarily "not that much."

When the negotiations are done and it's time to work, it's also time for the whiners to shut their yaps and work, not complain, not *****, not moan, not cry over the wage they've agreed to accept.

For some, the world is never enough. That's a poor reflection on the some.

Of course, some are afraid to walk through the airport terminal, becuase they think it's too dangerous, and they fear for their lives, and they post it on public web boards like this one, that seldom forget.

rickair7777

I chose a balance between money and lifestyle, and a factor was avoiding the soul-crushing monotony of certain types of jobs. That was the plan anyway.

Aviation had (has) it's ups and downs but for those starting starting out with the *usual indicators of success odds are good that you'll have a better life than most college grads.

You can point at multi-millionaire businessmen, lawyers, business owners, etc but that's the cream of the crop... for every one of them there's 100 that didn't make it and work 50 hours in a cube for $90k. Also it was a long road to success for them, at least as long as it is for us older pilots.

If you want the most predictable road to success, medicine is probably the way to go... graduate from med school and you're pretty much a made man. You can even triple-down and hang out your own shingle if the W2/1099 isn't enough for you. Knowing what I know now I should have joined my best friend at med school in the 90's, no lost decade there although covid wasn't any fun for the docs. But I'm not in a bad place by any means.


*Usual indicators of success = clean record, some academic ability, college degree or a path to get one, and some street smarts/athleticism/right stuff whatever you want to call it. Maybe even video gamers can make good pilots these days.

Sliceback

Back to the OP saying back in 2018 that you need earn $300,000 to be middle class in large urban areas. That's not true today and it certainly wasn't true 6 years ago. SFO has the highest cost of living to reach middle class. Inflation adjusted (2018-2023) the top of the scale would be $180,000 back in 2018 and $232,000 in 2023.

https://www.fool.com/the-ascent/pers...iggest-cities/