What is the pilot pay for an international airline pilot at a US carrier
when you find out what a senior captain makes you may be like
Sweet pea geez
Coming up
963 heavy sliding one hundred zero maintain one zero ten thousand probably what he left it clear for takeoff
Sometimes when people ask you what do you do for a living what they really want to know is how much money do you make?
in this video
I'm gonna talk about the range of pay
For being a regional pilot all the way up to being a senior captain at a legacy carrier
And if you don't know me, my name is Kelsey. I'm a
747 pilot
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Let's get into it
so the rule of thumb
When it comes to what your annual pay scale is gonna be as a pilot is gonna be whatever your hourly rate is
Just add three zeros to the back of that. So to give you an idea if your hourly pay rate is $40 an hour
Generally speaking. You're gonna make about 40,000 a year. Now. The other thing to keep in mind is depending on what care you're at
You're gonna have a daily minimum and that's gonna range between your carriers
So, for example, you're gonna get paid for four hours no matter how much you fly
So in that day, maybe you only flight two hours, but you're gonna get paid for four hours and there's other days
You're gonna fly. Let's say six hours and you'll get paid for six hours
So the minimum daily
Guarantee is no matter how much you fly or while you're out on a trip
If you're out on a trip no matter if you fly one hour or four hours
You're gonna always at least get four hours of pay
If you go above that, then you'll get above that pay
So sometimes what you'll have is pilots are looking at just the hourly pay rate and that is a factor
Of course to get an idea of what it is
you're gonna be making however, there's a lot of other ways that money can be made once you get to the airlines that
Daily minimum is one of those ways. Another thing I want to address is the first year pay at most carriers
whether it be a regional or
Legacy carrier and your legacy carriers are gonna be your larger airlines, you know
American FedEx UPS
United Delta those larger carriers that have thousands and thousands of pilots
Generally speaking that first year pay is going to be a lot less than what the rest of the pink scale is gonna be
that's because the airlines are incurring a lot of expense and
Training you and they're paying you to be studying and they're paying you to be in the simulator and learn everything. So they
Don't want to pay you in salary. Is that fair? No
No
No, no, no, no no no hell no, no no a
Lot of guys don't think that that's fair, but that's the current world that we live in so, there you go
So when I talk about pay coming up what I'm gonna be addressing is 2nd year pay
so that way we can kind of have a better feel for
what you can kind of expect from that point on right now your regional carriers your second year pay is gonna range somewhere between
Thirty eight to fifty eight dollars an hour roughly and that again is gonna vary on different
Airlines have different faces and things like that and in a later video. I'll talk about how to choose
What regional would be the best fit for you but to give you an idea right now?
You're looking at thirty eight to fifty eight debts as a first officer or copilot you're looking at roughly around that range
Plus in some some regionals are doing bonuses and things like that and and I talked about that in that pilot shortage video
But that gives you an idea as far as what the pay is right now at the regionals at the regionals
roughly you're going to be looking at three to five percent of
401k contribution and what that money is is basically free money that the airlines will give you as part of a retirement plan that
Is usually based off that you stay for several years and a few other factors and you can get a range
But roughly you're looking at three to five percent. Some of them are up to ten to twelve percent after so many years of service
So there's a few other factors of what your total compensation is going to end up being once you're at the regionals
But roughly you're looking at three five percent in some cases
ten to twelve percent depending on the years of service that you've been there now in your low-cost carrier market your spirit and
JetBlue and some consider Southwest a bit of a low-cost carrier
Some some consider the low-cost carriers to be a stepping stone to get to a legacy
More and more those low-cost carriers are trying to make themselves a final destination for a lot of pilots
Especially a company like Southwest they really want you if you go there to stay there
that's obviously their their end goal and
That's reflected in their paying compensation
and
How they treat their pilots the range of pay that you're gonna see there as a first officer on second year pay that's gonna range
You know from about a hundred to one hundred and twenty dollars an hour, roughly
so when you get to that next level in your career of going to let's say a low-cost carrier if you don't go medially to
a legacy you're gonna be roughly a hundred to one hundred and twenty an hour and you're gonna have a lot more on the
Compensation on your 401k generally in your 401k at low-cost carrier you're looking at twelve to fifteen percent
Direct contribution and what that means is without you putting any money into your retirement
they're gonna take 12 to 15 percent of the money that you made that year and
Automatically give that to you as a bonus
If you made a hundred thousand, you're gonna get an extra ten thousand from the company now, you can't do anything with that money
It's set aside for your retirement, but that's still extra money. That's yours
so that gives you an idea of some extra money that you're gonna get if you're working there now on the majors or the
legacies like we talked about earlier your your page is gonna go anywhere from 130 to
175 180 something like that when you get to second year pay
So you're talking about a huge range of pay when you're looking at from a regional guy who could be making forty on
Second year pay to a legacy guy who could make making 180 on on second year pay
it's a big difference as far as
Where you start and where you end and then when you look at the captain's there that guys that are the senior captains
They're making over
$300 an hour. So I think some of them are up to 305 some are paying 320 an hour
That's a really big scale of where you could where you start from
38 to
Three hundred and twenty dollars an hour. That's a big difference in what what you're gonna be making pay wise
So there's some guys out there that are making a lot more
There's captain's that are making five hundred to six hundred thousand a year. How are they making that money?
I'm listening. Okay, the way that guys are making all that extra money is by working on their days off
so usually airlines are gonna pay a range between
One hundred and fifty two hundred percent in some cases when they're really desperate three hundred percent of your hourly rate
So if you're normally making $100 an hour, and they're really desperate in some cases
They'll be paying you
$300 an hour to do a normal regular flight that you would be operating on three hundred percent is not a common occurrence
But I've seen it before usually what you'll see is a hundred fifty percent or some variation of that on your pay
There's a bunch of other little tricks and things like that
But that gives you an idea of how those pilots are making so much extra money
So you're talking four hundred to five hundred thousand a year. They're working extra. They're working above they're
Generally assigned schedules to pick up extra trips then get that extra money. I'm rich they're not dead
sexy
Alright cruise that gives you an idea of what you can expect
Once you get to the airlines when you get to the regionals and what it's paying right now if you go to the legacies
Obviously that path can be very quick or it can take a while depending on who you are in the comments section below
Let me know the hourly rate you'd be happy with as a pilot
I look forward to hearing from you until then keep the blue side up