What is the difference between a McDonald's fry cook and a Colgan Air First Officer?

[Stinky The Clown]

Answer: About 50 cents an hour.

The Colgan Air First Officer who died in the crash in Buffalo was paid $16,500 a year, could only afford to live at home with her parents - in SEATTLE - and commute from coast to coast on space available.

Space available these days might involve a very long stay at an airport waiting for an seat to a place you need to go.

This might be why fatigue is an issue for some of these commuter airlines.

[KamaAina]

1. I was gonna say "The cool paper hat".

Un-freakin'-believable. :eyes:

[Old and In the Way]

2. I'll remember that next time I'm on a commuter flight.

Pretty damn scary.

[Ilsa]

3. Hubby doesn't take commuter flights anymore, but the reason

was because they were unreliable, and his arrival time home was always getting messed up, as in, 8 hours later. I'm thrilled he doesn't do the commuter flights anymore.

[TimesSquareCowboy]

4. No ice build up on fryolators?

[county worker]

5. I'm not saying that the salary is fair, but those jobs are a step to the higher paying pilot

positions.

I was going to go to flight school way back when and then I found out that the first step was flying on commuter airlines at $15K a year and I declined. If you make it you can do well. Sort of like trying to become an actor. There is a lot of competition. Also you are competing with retired military pilots.

[TwilightZone]

6. There's a pilot who often posts on Salon.com. He was making similar points.

Low pay and long hours seem to be the norm for the regional airlines. It's probably amazing that incidents like this one don't happen more often.

[MADem]

7. Is that a regular salary, from year to year, or a probationary salary?

Does the pay go up the following year, and the next, and the next, by many thousands? Or is that "the salary" for the entire time a person is a First Officer?

I know a lot of jobs that start out with a shit starting salary, but very quickly the pay doubles, then triples, if the person isn't a fuckup.

If the airline is scheduling people too close together to not do their "crew rest" that's a different issue altogether. Also, if there's a huge difference between the working base of the employee and the residential address, that's an issue as well--it's something that the airline should have conceivably been aware of, and either provided a crew lounge where the employees could get some solid sleep, or require them to report to a hotel to crash for eight hours before they fly.

[Stinky The Clown]

8. I don't know about the year to year increases

That said, the expectation is that one would fly as a First Officer for one to four years, tops, and then move to Captain or to a First Officer at a major. This leads me to comfortably speculate that the salary is indicative of all commuter First Officers.

Many, many pilots and air crew live someplace other than the ops base and commute. This woman's commute was unusual in only its distance.

[MADem]

13. Most NY-NJ people do live elsewhere, but they often have what's called a

"commuter place" where they crash between flights. They'll toss in around two hundred bucks a month towards the rent, and one airline employee will manage the joint, which will be used as a crash pad by anywhere from ten to twenty airline personnel. Depending on how the place is run, it can be a crash pad where people "hot rack" or a halfway decent and restful respite. Because of the way people push their schedule together (or try to) each person is only in the place two or three times a month. If people are trying to economize and don't want to pitch in towards a commuter place, then they're stuck trying to catch a nap in the crew lounge--that's not always very effective.

I'd be interested in learning how long that salary is in effect. I don't think that's the permanent salary of a first officer. I could be wrong, but it seems more like a probationary salary to me...

[SoCalDem]

19. The "upper limit" for pilots has been falling for decades

as has their pension benefit ..As the "cream of the crop" older pilots have been forced out through mergers, close-downs and buy-out early retirements, the gaps have been filled with younger "less expensive" pilots.. Actions always have consequences..

Would you feel safer having a Sullenberger at the controls, or a newbie making 20K a year..with a few years experience..

Emergencies can never be "planned", so that a "gray-hair" can be in charge on that flight..:(

[Freddie Stubbs]

9. Did he work 40 hours per week for 52 weeks?

:shrug:

[Stinky The Clown]

11. Does that actually matter?

:shrug:

I mean ..... really ....... what if she made twice what a McDolad's fry cook makes? Does make you twice as confident to fly with a pilot still living pretty much below the poverty level?

[TwixVoy]

17. No it was a part time pilot

If you read the article he was paid $22/hour. If he had worked full time he would have made considerably more per year.

[Nicholas D Wolfwood]

10. It's very similar to how rookie doctors are treated, too.

Why in the holy hell are we putting lives in the hands of people making minimum wage or less AND working them ungodly hours? It's just friggin insane. I don't understand the insistence on "paying ones dues" in this nation.

[Stinky The Clown]

12. I actually **can** see the benefit of paying one's dues.

I do NOT endorse the notion of flailing them skinless in the process.

(I think we agree, you and me.)

[Nicholas D Wolfwood]

15. Yep, I hear ya. (nt)

[northernlights]

16. you forgot the part about having to fist take out a loan

the size of a mortgage to get the necessary creds in the 1st place. Then pay them squat and work them 24 hours/day. And then blame them when they make mistakes...

[Nicholas D Wolfwood]

18. Yeah, that's the gist of it really.

It's absolutely insane.

[gratuitous]

14. The fry cook can chat with the person in the next seat during takeoff?

Do I win?