Salary Considerations:
I just finished budgeting salaries for a multi million dollar startup company that would require 15 to 20 million dollars of startup funds for the first 8 years. Hopefully we can bring back far more than that!
Here were the salary criteria: White collar trained personnel in a critical job that risked NO lives was $40,000 per year. $50,000 if they had direct experience. $60,000 expected by 3rd to 5th year or as a performance bonus to that level or higher. The company would be started in one of the lowest cost-to-live parts of the USA in the South East.
For life-protecting live-risking jobs where there is always a risk like for commercial pilots (even police have part time risk when compared to a pilot) I would not think of such low salaries. A pilot is always "on" making critical decisions from the night before to get sleep, through preflight, takeoff, monitoring the flight, and landing. Now-a-days they can't even drink without fear of loosing their license privileges so there is a significant sacrifice in their personal life.
I would expect to pay for an airline pilot flying passengers $60,000 per year entry level, $70k the 2nd year, and $80k the third. After 5 years $100k to $130k would be reasonable possibly through a company profits performance bonus. Pay less than this and they can't go to the dentist, afford a good gym, drive a dependable car, etc.. Even at $60k they will probably still live in a apartment.
Conceptually , they should make enough money that they can throw money at their problems so they can keep their mind on work (flying).
The last thing I would want is someone that needs a 2nd job to support a family or to improve their life. One FAA report I read told of 2 pilots, thankfully flying freight, for low salaries, which also worked a 2nd job in construction. One night they tried to land on top of a building in an industrial area that they thought was a landing strip! They had worked construction that day, were tired, were high on drugs, and as you can imagine did not do a full safety check preflight. The charter type freight airline had taken advantage of the glut of pilots on the market at the time to drive down their wages.
Low pay will raise the death rate. It is not rocket science to figure this out.
