I believe that the regional airline industry is going through a pilot shortage rather than having pilot pay issues for a couple of reasons. The first reason being is that in the major airlines all of the baby boomers are hitting the mandatory retirement age of 65, because of that regional pilots are moving to the major airlines a lot quicker than they use to. The second reason I believe that there is a shortage is that the regional airlines will hire you as soon as you have the correct certifications and the minimum amount of hours (either 1,000 or 1,500 depending on which flight school you attend) and they are currently getting paid a very reasonable price for a first officer position. According to the endeavor air website; first year pilots are making $60,000 in first year income (signing bonus and first year salary) and are also retention reimbursements for staying on as a pilot a second year. I honestly believe that Endeavor would not be offering such a big package if they did not have such a pilot shortage at their company. The pay is very fair and above average for many people who earn a living.
The regional airlines may be concerned with their hiring pool because they are hiring the bare minimum when it comes to requirements for hours and endorsements. I think something that is important to remember is you are hiring a person as well. It is very important to look at the potential pilot's personality i.e. does the interviewee have combative nature, or cocky attitude? Those personality traits can be very dangerous in the cockpit. It is important to have the hours and endorsements but it is even more important to be mentally fit for the job.
According to the Job Monkey website; other industry unions include Association of Flight Attendants, National Association of Air Traffic Controllers and Transport Workers Union.
I believe that professionalism is a term that needs to be used by everyone in the workforce. This includes and is not limited to the employees and upper management. It involves having high employee satisfaction while also having a business mind set. You want to pay the pilots and other employees fairly for the hours they put in and treat them like they are your own family. It is hard to do that and make an exponential amount of money but if you have great employee satisfaction then the money will come in. Also employees needs to be willing to make sacrifices and work with upper management as well, it is a two way street for everyone.
Obviously upper management had no respect for their employees. They used skewed statistics on how much each pilot is getting paid. Employees were not being treated fairly by their bosses. Another lack of professionalism is the Colgan accident. Those pilots were overworked and should not have been flying aircraft at that time. The company did not give them adequate time to rest for their duty time in which they became overworked that caused mistakes in the aircraft that led to the death.
I absolutely believe the first year pay is a contributing factor in the lack of professionalism. When you are going to work for 16 hours a day and getting paid less than a full time McDonald's employee that will hurt your morale and deteriorate your professionalism in your position. It is no wonder why this accident happened at Colgan.
Two ways that you can expand your level of professionalism is by standing your ground and making sure that you are not overworked whatsoever. It is life and death in the air and I would not want to fly a plane after I have been on duty for almost 16 hours. The other way to maintain your professionalism is by making sure you are paid fairly for the amount of work you are putting in. If you know you are underpaid for your position, it will take away from your morale and low morale can cause a combative attitude which can be a contributing factor to mistakes in the cockpit.
Hey Scott! I really liked what you had to say about first year pay contributing to the lack of professionalism in and out of the workplace! I had only considered first year pay as contributing to less motivation for people to learn how to fly. I hadn't considered how pay would affect pilots already doing the job currently. It makes a lot of sense though, the more you get paid doing a job, the more pride and professionalism you are going to take with that position! Good read!
ReplyDeleteScott,
ReplyDeleteI agree with your statement that low first year pay contributed to lack of professionalism in the colgan accident. The pilots overwhelming concern for money was the main topic of conversation leading up to the crash. This shows that pay was indeed affecting the way the pilots did their jobs.
Travis Sixberry