Better than industry standard pay...

This forum has been developed to discuss flight instruction/University and College programs.

Moderators: sky's the limit, sepia, Sulako, Right Seat Captain, lilfssister, North Shore

Post Reply
rvdungen
Rank 1
Rank 1
Posts: 17
Joined: Thu Feb 09, 2017 9:07 am

Better than industry standard pay...

Post by rvdungen »

It seems every flight school now is offering instructors better than industry standard pay in their desperate attempts at attracting applicants. If that’s the case wouldn’t they just be offering average pay? What is average pay now that instructors are making above the arbitrary previous below average pay? Let me throw a number of $35/flight hour for a class 3 for what I would expect to hear as average.
---------- ADS -----------
 
jg24
Rank 3
Rank 3
Posts: 151
Joined: Wed Sep 05, 2012 7:44 pm
Location: Near that puffy cloud

Re: Better than industry standard pay...

Post by jg24 »

rvdungen wrote:It seems every flight school now is offering instructors better than industry standard pay in their desperate attempts at attracting applicants. If that’s the case wouldn’t they just be offering average pay? What is average pay now that instructors are making above the arbitrary previous below average pay? Let me throw a number of $35/flight hour for a class 3 for what I would expect to hear as average.

They can't afford it. If they start paying all their class 3s that, they'll be out of business real fast. Maybe the larger companies, but not your smaller FTUs and clubs. 35$/hr is more of a Class 2 pay scale (average).
---------- ADS -----------
 
CloudRider77
Rank 0
Rank 0
Posts: 1
Joined: Mon Mar 11, 2013 2:56 pm

Re: Better than industry standard pay...

Post by CloudRider77 »

jg24 wrote:
rvdungen wrote:It seems every flight school now is offering instructors better than industry standard pay in their desperate attempts at attracting applicants. If that’s the case wouldn’t they just be offering average pay? What is average pay now that instructors are making above the arbitrary previous below average pay? Let me throw a number of $35/flight hour for a class 3 for what I would expect to hear as average.

They can't afford it. If they start paying all their class 3s that, they'll be out of business real fast. Maybe the larger companies, but not your smaller FTUs and clubs. 35$/hr is more of a Class 2 pay scale (average).
CFI of a newer FTU here. When we first started, we were paying our starting 4's $33 per hour plus a base salary of $500 a month(3's were making $36/hr + $750 base). After a few months of operating, we talked and decided on switching to just base salaries(Scaled depending on work quality, experience, and time with the company) Won't say exact numbers, but our Class 2 is definitely making more than the equivalent of $35/flight hour. I can definitely say that we CAN afford it, and if anything, it's REALLY paying off.

Our team is really putting in the effort and producing high quality training aids/exams/forms when they are not flying, which is really paying off on the student side of things as they notice the time and effort we put into them. Having a happy team and happy students pays back in so many ways more than cutting the corner on wages ever did.

Having come from a school that "Couldn't afford to pay us better", and comparing the quality of their training program(As well as number of students) after 20 years to our school after almost 1 year, I can DEFINITELY say that they were shooting themselves in the foot with statements like that.
---------- ADS -----------
 
marakii
Rank 4
Rank 4
Posts: 246
Joined: Tue Jan 12, 2016 8:59 am

Re: Better than industry standard pay...

Post by marakii »

There's still schools that pay class 4s like $20 an hour.
I think that a well planned school that cares about their students will do very well.

I walked into a school and you can see log books here and there as well copies of students passport documents and test results for all to see.

So much for quality and privacy.
---------- ADS -----------
 
jg24
Rank 3
Rank 3
Posts: 151
Joined: Wed Sep 05, 2012 7:44 pm
Location: Near that puffy cloud

Re: Better than industry standard pay...

Post by jg24 »

CloudRider77 wrote:
CFI of a newer FTU here. When we first started, we were paying our starting 4's $33 per hour plus a base salary of $500 a month(3's were making $36/hr + $750 base). After a few months of operating, we talked and decided on switching to just base salaries(Scaled depending on work quality, experience, and time with the company) Won't say exact numbers, but our Class 2 is definitely making more than the equivalent of $35/flight hour. I can definitely say that we CAN afford it, and if anything, it's REALLY paying off.

Our team is really putting in the effort and producing high quality training aids/exams/forms when they are not flying, which is really paying off on the student side of things as they notice the time and effort we put into them. Having a happy team and happy students pays back in so many ways more than cutting the corner on wages ever did.

Having come from a school that "Couldn't afford to pay us better", and comparing the quality of their training program(As well as number of students) after 20 years to our school after almost 1 year, I can DEFINITELY say that they were shooting themselves in the foot with statements like that.
That's great to hear! In a world of some pretty run down FTUs. I don't know if the owners/operators of FTUs are just purposely trying to ignore the fact that the hard work and in return, good pay, yields to a good and successful school. Your school must be one of the very FEW in the country in that state, here's to hoping that more FTUs aim towards improving themselves.
marakii wrote:There's still schools that pay class 4s like $20 an hour.
I think that a well planned school that cares about their students will do very well.

I walked into a school and you can see log books here and there as well copies of students passport documents and test results for all to see.

So much for quality and privacy.
Been there, seen it. Even worse, I was one of the few that took the step forward to put these papers in the appropriate student's folder or replenish the toilet paper roll, throw out some trash, or refill printer with paper etc... No boasting, just common f'n sense. It is sad to see some places in those states, and downright scary at times when you think of what they offer: professional flight training...
---------- ADS -----------
 
omega
Rank 0
Rank 0
Posts: 14
Joined: Tue Feb 14, 2012 4:15 pm

Re: Better than industry standard pay...

Post by omega »

marakii wrote:There's still schools that pay class 4s like $20 an hour.
There's a school in the Milton / Burlington area still paying their Class 4's $20 to start, Class 3 is an extra $1

Anybody care to share what other FTU's are paying?
---------- ADS -----------
 
RocksAndProps
Rank 1
Rank 1
Posts: 40
Joined: Thu Sep 21, 2017 2:36 pm
Location: West of Centre

Re: Better than industry standard pay...

Post by RocksAndProps »

Southern Ontario.
4: 28
3: 32
2: 36
1: 41
---------- ADS -----------
 
Post Reply

Return to “Flight Training”