Still on the Job, but at Half the Pay

[AllentownJake]

MECHANICSVILLE, Va. — The dark blue captain’s hat, with its golden oak-leaf clusters, sits atop a bookcase in Bryan Lawlor’s home, out of reach of the children. The uniform their father wears still displays the four stripes of a commercial airline captain, but the hat stays home. The rules forbid that extra display of authority, now that Mr. Lawlor has been downgraded to first officer.

"We are actually very lucky. As someone pointed out, we are fed, we are healthy, and we have a roof over our heads. I know that many people do not have our kind of support, and they are the ones that are truly soldiering on."

He is now in the co-pilot’s seat in the 50-seat commuter jets he flies, not for any failure in skill. He wears his captain’s stripes, he explains, to make that point. But with air travel down, his employer cut costs by downgrading 130 captains, those with the lowest seniority, to first officers, automatically cutting the wage of each by roughly 50 percent — to $34,000 in Mr. Lawlor’s case.

The demotion, the loss of command, the cut in pay to less than his wife, Tracy, makes as a fourth-grade teacher, have diminished Mr. Lawlor, 34, in his own eyes. He still thinks he will return to being the family’s principal breadwinner, although as the months pass he worries more. “I don’t want to be a 50-year-old pilot earning $40,000 a year,” he said, adding that his wife does not want to be married to a pilot with so little earning power.

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/10/14/business/economy/14income.html?_r=1&hp

[Obamanaut]

1. So the wife is in the marriage for the money?

"...adding that his wife does not want to be married to a pilot with so little earning power."

[AllentownJake]

3. Could be his thoughts not hers

Men take it kind of personally when their wives make more than they do.

[valerief]

4. The pilot said that. He didn't say his wife said it. nt

[Duke Newcombe]

7. Check that. He's got bigger issues...

..if he's right about his wife's attitude.

[endless october]

2. crappy pay = crappy economy.

want your consumers to buy stuff?

pay them.

[appamado amata padam]

5. I am sorry to see this guy get the shaft, but it bothers me that

he seems to think that self-esteem and love are based on money and a cushy lifestyle. I think this family needs to dig deep in their hearts and find the love and support for each other, instead of lamenting over the stuff they have lost. Even their "downsized" lifestyle is better than what lots of hard-working and well-educated people have now.

[AllentownJake]

6. Its a natural reaction for any man

Especially if they were making more than their wife before. Men value themselves as providers in a family first. He's probably a heck of a lot more than that to his wife and children, however providing for his family is part of his pride in what he's accomplished in life and his dignity is taking a hit because he can't provide for the people he loved like he used to be able to do.

[blaze]

8. And let's not forget what else he said....

"We are actually very lucky. As someone pointed out, we are fed, we are healthy, and we have a roof over our heads. I know that many people do not have our kind of support, and they are the ones that are truly soldiering on."

[Nickster]

9. What an absolute joke that someone with so much responsibility gets paid so little, 34k is a slap in

the face to someone who holds my life in their hands every time I need a commuter flight. Makes me wonder how much they pay for the guys who keep the airplanes running? How much have they cut from routine maintainence?