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Airline pilot salaries are probably one of the most misunderstood aspects of the profession when discussed by the non-flying public. If I had a nickel every time I saw or read incorrect information concerning how pilots are paid, I think I'd be a very wealthy person! I'll discuss how much newly minted pilots, fresh out of university and/or flight training can expect to make, and then I'll discuss salary ranges for airline pilots. Unfortunately, I think many aspiring airline pilots are going to be surprised as to how low civilian pilot pay can go.
Hourly Pay Rates: What They Really Mean...
Let me start off by discussing hourly pay rates. Very often, you'll hear a pilot school recruiter or a TV reporter or read in the media a quote or statement that a professional pilot, "earns XX.XX amount per hour...." For example, one time on CNBC I heard a regional airline management representative trying to defend entry level regional airline pilot wages by proudly claiming that a new pilot at his airline earns twenty dollars an hour! Now to the general public, that's a pretty good wage. I mean, just doing round numbers in your head that's ($20/per hour) x (40 hours per week) x (52 weeks per year), right? That's over 40 grand a year, right? Wrong!
Pilots aren't paid like any other hourly worker in other professions. Despite the fact that professional pilots work 8, 10, 12 hour+ days just like any other professional, they are only compensated for the time considered "in flight." For most flying jobs, unless it's a salaried position, that usually means that they are paid from when the parking brake is released at the departure point until the brake is set upon arrival at the destination. It's not uncommon for a flight instructor or an airline pilot to work a 12 hour day and only actually get paid for 5 to 6 hours of that time- and sometimes less!
So, armed with that knowledge, where does that leave us? Well, as a rule of thumb, which works well for most airline jobs, take the hourly wage you're looking at and multiply it by 1,000 to get a rough estimate of your annual wage. So in my CNBC example above, the regional airline management representative who said his airline pays new pilots 20 bucks an hour was really only paying his new pilots about $20,000 per year. That's a "little bit" different than what he was trying to get his listeners to believe. You'll find that flight school salesmen, university recruiters, and airline management like to discuss pilot salaries publicly in "dollars per hour" because it doesn't make low annual salaries sound as bad...but I find that incredibly misleading.
So when you're talking to that slick-talking university representative or flight school salesman about future anticipated earnings, your antennae should go up when they start talking about wages in terms of "dollars per hour." Once you hear that, you'll know you're probably getting fed a line...
The Professional Pilot Salary Ladder - Airlines
I'll start at the bottom of the civilian pay tiers and work my way up. As mentioned in the "Typical Career Paths" section of this site, many professional pilots start off flight instructing. Flight instructor pay tends to be very, very low and unless you are fortunate enough to work for a very busy flight school, many flight instructors have to work a second job in order to make ends meet. Wages of around $10 to $20 dollars per hour (remember what I said about hourly wages above!) are not uncommon. This wage often includes no benefits like vacation, sick leave, or health insurance. In some states, flight instructors will qualify for public assistance. Keep in mind that many flight instructors have just graduated from college and/or have recently finished all of their flight training and are now required to start paying back all that debt, which can amount to payments that are several hundred dollars per month. All I can say is that it can be as financially difficult as it sounds- long days, low pay, and a crushing debt load from all that money you needed to borrow for your college education and flight training. The flight school and university recruiters likely didn't mention that low salary part to you, did they?
You can see why I mentioned previously that nobody wants to stay as a flight instructor for long. This is also the point where the reality of this profession starts to kick in. Many pilots wander off into different careers in an attempt to make ends meet, never returning to the pilot profession again. Hopefully, at this point in your career, the economy is going strong, airlines are hiring, and you don't have to flight instruct for long.
The next rung in the salary ladder pilots might find themselves standing on after flight instructing is probably flying charter for a small commercial/corporate flight department or flying freight. Again, low wages and poor quality of life prevail. A person working for a small business participating in the above commercial activities might earn an annual salary in the high 20's per year or the low 30's if they're lucky, with perhaps some meager benefits like the ability to obtain health insurance through their employer. At this point, you're probably two to three years out of college, maybe longer if the economy is doing poorly.
If your next rung in the salary ladder is at a regional airline instead of a small commercial/corporate flight department, unfortunately, you're not doing much better. Entry level wages for a regional airline First Officer range around $20/hour, which equates to around $20,000 per year. This salary, however, often includes some benefits like health insurance, a meager 401K match, and sick leave. So the salary remains low, but there are now some benefits attached to that low hourly rate. Senior First Officers, with at least several years of experience, can expect to make around $30-$40/hour, or $30,000 to $40,000 per year.
As mentioned in the "Typical Career Paths" portion of this website, depending upon the economy and the financial condition of your employer, you may spend a short period of time as a First Officer, or a long period of time. Some regional airline First Officers at one large regional airline were approaching a decade as a First Officer with no real upgrade opportunities in sight. For your financial sake, hopefully your stay as a regional airline First Officer is a short period of time! Once you upgrade to Captain, at most regional airlines you can expect to make in the $35,000 to $50,000 range annually as a new, junior Captain, with the lower rate applying to Captains of turboprop aircraft and the higher rate applying to Captains of turbojet powered aircraft. A senior regional airline turbojet Captain with 15 to 20 years at his or her regional airline can earn a high 5 figure salary to a low six figure salary, depending upon the airline.
For pilots that desire to go on to a large, major airline or cargo carrier, pay and quality of life can improve. A professional pilot with over a decade of experience and thousands of hours of experience as a Captain would be considered reasonably qualified for an entry level position as a First Officer at a large major airline or cargo carrier. Entry level pay can vary quite a bit, and sometimes results in a pay cut if one is leaving a regional airline as a senior Captain. For most major airlines, entry level pay for a entry level First Officer is in the $30,000 to $60,000 range, whereas a senior First Officer can earn in the low six figure range annually. At some financially successful major airlines and cargo carriers, entry level First Officers can earn upwards of $70,000 per year and as a senior First Officer, they can expect to earn in the low six figure range annually as well. A few airlines still have a defined benefit pension plan, which is financially very valuable. Keep in mind that entry level first officers at this level are, on average, in their mid to late 30's and have been out of college slogging it out in the real world for well over 10 to 15 years- but sometimes much, much longer.
Now comes the financial pinnacle of the profession- what many pilots aspire to- becoming a Captain at a large major airline or cargo carrier. Junior Captains earn around $120,000 to $140,000 per year at major airlines, and at some financially successful major airlines and cargo carriers, slightly over $200,000 per year. Unfortunately, however, these men and women are at the tip of the pilot pay pyramid, and these jobs are extremely hard to come by. Many will read these six figure numbers and salivate, but unfortunately it is highly unlikely that the average reader will ever see a salary that high. There simply aren't that many jobs like this available, and there are tons of other variables that could come into play that can prevent you from ever becoming senior enough to hold a position like that at any time in your career.
Unfortunately, the six figure numbers in the previous paragraph are the salaries that are thrown around by the media, and the slick-talking flight school/university salesmen trying to get you to enroll in their flight program. Those salaries are assumed by the flying public to be the "average" or "normal" salaries for the typical airline pilot, and of course nothing could be further from the truth- although I wish it were true!
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