share what you make.

[Always_Learning]

well just curious what everyone here made working in aviation. I know wages are lower than other industries but just curious what you make so your job how long you have been doing this I'm just curious where everyone is at. especially AME.

[BKerns]

500 (first!)

[Nark]

My pay scales are published on the web.
Both at the airline and military.

[Jet Jockey]

More than $200K but less than $250K.

[Braun]

200-250k

[leftoftrack]

$125

[Mark Rose]

$NotEnough

[arctic_slim]

$45-50 for me. Im somewhat at the beginning of my career, hoping it will get better haha.

EDIT: I started flying in 2011 after ramping it for a while. Started at around 35-37K (depending on how much I flew) as an FO. Now 3 years after my first job I make a bit more on a Caravan. Hoping that hard work pays off and I can make more later on in my career.

[AuxBatOn]

120K

[KISS_MY_TCAS]

The problem with your question is that it is too broad. A 200 hour Navajo F/O will make substantially less than a senior airline captain, and a freshly printed AME license will earn far less that the senior wrenches. The problem with aviation that sends everyone into a tailspin are the horrendously low wages for the first 10 or so years working in the industry while other trades reach high dollar rates early in the progression of the respective trade. If you enter aviation in your early 20s, you can watch your plumber and electrician buddies load up on new homes, trucks, boats, and other toys while you are renting your residence and budgeting to afford something nicer than kraft dinner once in a while. I earn a good 6 figure wage as an AME, living in a city as opposed to some northern outpost but it took forever to get there. If you want better money and are impatient, get out now and relearn a new trade, because its a long road to a respectable wage and lifestyle in aviation. I worked with a guy that in the first week of holding his AME license thought he should be earning what I was, and started accosting management about it. I held him to task, because if you want to earn my wage you should be able to do what I do. He would get lost on the first page of a complex circuit in a wiring diagram, had never rigged an engine or flight control on his own, could not make a decision, and needed help interpreting anything he would read in a manual. And his paperwork and log entries were, at best, a disaster. Anything he did perform on his own was of poor workmanship, and something as basic as lockwiring a couple bolts would usually meet my sidecutters and need to be redone, he was incapable of working within the realm of common acceptable standard practices. To possess the license does not command the wage, the industry is already saturated with useless people that have one. Make your own career, if you want to stick it out and earn a good wage, put the effort in. Learn from those around you, and accept the fact that you are going to @#$! up, and learn from it. Or run away and retrain if you want fast money, because aviation does not offer that.

[Meecka]

AME, been at it 13 years, low $60's

[fleet16b]

AME, been at it 13 years, low $60's

Years ago while I was an apprentice AME , my father who was an AME advised me that the industry was changing and the gap between AME wage/economy was ever increasing.
His point was that it would not be worth pursuing as the job, the conditions, the liability vs pay would not be worth it.
(We could debate those points all day)
In the long run for me he was right.
We ( Major Engine Manufacturer) employ many that went thru the AME process and obtained the AME Lic. only to never use it again once they came to us. Most make a base salary of between 70-80k > 100-110k with overtime plus full benifits excellent conditions etc.
We also hire people fresh out of the AME schools that intended to but will never need the AME Lic as long as they work for us.
I guess it is all a matter of choice really but a field AME will in most cases never come close to what we pay.

[FL020]

350-400k........NOT.
Why doesn't everyone post what they're flying, included in their listed "salaries"?

155k for me. 737 Capt, not wj

[Meecka]

fleet... This wage has only been in effect since I've changed location of employment a year ago. At my previous place of employment I was making aprox $54000, after busting my butt for them for nearly 5 years, and basically told I should feel privileged to work there.

[fleet16b]

fleet... This wage has only been in effect since I've changed location of employment a year ago. At my previous place of employment I was making aprox $54000, after busting my butt for them for nearly 5 years, and basically told I should feel privileged to work there.

Meecka
I know where you worked.
While it is a great experience to work on some interesting aircraft , the reality is such organizations rarely pay well
as they cannot turn a profit.
At present they have greatly reduced their Ops due to failure to turn themselves into a viable business
An unrealistic goal if you compare them to other larger like groups

[Meecka]

At present they have greatly reduced their Ops due to failure to turn themselves into a viable business
An unrealistic goal if you compare them to other larger like groups

Hence my change of employment.

But I digress. Sorry for the threadjack folks.

[FICU]

Post What you currently make and how long it took you to get there once you started flying professionally to get a better idea of compensation this industry.

[Flypilot]

80K in my 3rd year on a Navajo

[ant_321]

55k in my 4th year in the industry. Flying a 1900.

[complexintentions]

Some clarification of the rules of engagement is needed. Working as an expat, an apples to apples comparison is problematic as tax regimes are different and so what goes in your pocket is different - I assume the figures quoted here are gross wages pre-tax? If so, it would also make a difference where you live in Canada as to what you actually "make", or in simple terms - KEEP.

Lest you think I am splitting hairs, grossing 150K in BC gives you about 105K, but if you lived in NS you'd have about 97K, or $8,000 less. For the same job.

http://www.ey.com/CA/en/Services/Tax/Ta ... rsonal-Tax

[New_PIC]

...
Lest you think I am splitting hairs, grossing 150K in BC gives you about 105K, but if you lived in NS you'd have about 97K, or $8,000 less. For the same job.
...

People pay tax when they make money, but also when they spend it. Where someone lives makes a big difference in sales tax and other overhead. That skews the value of a gross income number too.

[Glasnost]

Some clarification of the rules of engagement is needed. Working as an expat, an apples to apples comparison is problematic as tax regimes are different and so what goes in your pocket is different - I assume the figures quoted here are gross wages pre-tax? If so, it would also make a difference where you live in Canada as to what you actually "make", or in simple terms - KEEP.

Lest you think I am splitting hairs, grossing 150K in BC gives you about 105K, but if you lived in NS you'd have about 97K, or $8,000 less. For the same job.

http://www.ey.com/CA/en/Services/Tax/Ta ... rsonal-Tax

That $8000 in BC will easily be eaten up by the higher cost of living (AKA the Sunshine Tax) plus other taxes like the carbon tax, property tax, road tax, and whatnot. Chances are if you are in NS you probably won't pay as much income tax because you will be able to put more towards tax-deductible things like RRSPs than someone in BC will for the same income.

[flythatwing]

This is my third year in aviation. 39K base plus mileage and duty time away from base (holding on charters) flying a Navajo SPIFR up north... My annual income will be anywhere between 52-55K. First multi pic job.

[jschnurr]

After 5 years in the industry, I've made $100,000....

That's an average of $20K/year

[cyeg66]

ATC, $140k, but since I work in Alberta, that puts my take home on par with Braun's $200-250k that he earns in la belle province. I should mention that there's a wee bit of o/t that I earn over and above that. On the other hand, the cost of living here in the land of Milking Honey is increasingly eating into any perceived tax advantage we may have....