share what you make.

[ExpatFlyer]

About $350k after 20 years in the industry.

[unregistered]

$350,980.00 (USD)

Big Jet Captain, China.

[FL020]

Where's the like button.....and the application form?

[complexintentions]

lol

There are no contracts currently paying remotely anything like 30k USD/month gross in China. Or anywhere. 350K is however, about what one would have to earn in Canada to keep the same amount of $$ in your pocket at the end of each month as you can with certain expat jobs.

Didn't mean to open a debate about BC vs NS - the point was that net matters, not gross. Cost of living is another discussion, but apples to apples, you'll keep a much bigger chunk of your pay in BC or AB over NS or QC. Simple fact.

[unregistered]

There are no contracts currently paying remotely anything like 30k USD/month gross in China.

Not quite correct.

350K is however, about what one would have to earn in Canada to keep the same amount of $$ in your pocket at the end of each month as you can with certain expat jobs.

Generally correct.

[Braun]

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....

Haha, ...if you can convince me to go live in Edmonton I will bid on next year's seniority bid.

[mmm..bacon]

Ok, I'll bite. A summary of types and salaries for my career:
1996/7 Flight instruction. $17/hr (I think - can't really remember...)
1997. C185 $1800/mo( -$300 for the company supplied accoms!) takehome = $1500.
1998. DHC6 $2400/mo
1999. DHC6 $2500/mo
2000. DHC3T $2500/mo (I think that the company got a pretty sweet deal out of me that summer!)
2001. Pa31-350 ~ $50k/yr
2014. Cl415 ~$100k/yr depending on season length.

So, 19 years as a professional pilot (25 since I took my first lesson) and flying 'my 747'..

[hadiiz]

~$35K a year (mileage included), first year flying C172 charters.

[Joe Blow Schmo]

lol

There are no contracts currently paying remotely anything like 30k USD/month gross in China. Or anywhere.

I wouldn't be so sure about that.

[Gene Hasenfus]

Years ago, I was contacted by a company that wanted
me to modify an ethernet driver that I wrote, to support
a fiber PHY instead of twisted pair.

I looked at it, and quoted four days at $1000/day. It
wasn't exactly going to take me four days, if you know
what I mean, but ... Documentation. Testing. Support.
Right?

Company came back and said gee, $1000/day is too
rich for us.

I thought for a moment and replied, how about $800
per day for five days instead?

Deal, the company happily replied. They got a discounted
rate.

Go figure.

[unregistered]

lol

There are no contracts currently paying remotely anything like 30k USD/month gross in China. Or anywhere.

I wouldn't be so sure about that.

Exactly.

[sstaurus]

lol

There are no contracts currently paying remotely anything like 30k USD/month gross in China. Or anywhere.

I wouldn't be so sure about that.

Exactly.

Where did you guys come from? Canadian/Jetsgo/C3 or similar? The experience requirements for those lucrative expat gigs seem to be wayyy up there...

[complexintentions]

lol

There are no contracts currently paying remotely anything like 30k USD/month gross in China. Or anywhere.

I wouldn't be so sure about that.

Well, I'm currently shopping for a new contract job as a B777 captain. As such I receive multiple emails weekly from every major recruiting agency with the pertinent contract details, including salary. They will not generally post the details publicly to anyone not meeting the experience requirements, which as sstaurus notes, are quite high.

The better contracts are offering in the 17-20K USD/month range, net of tax of their domicile country. Good money, but a long way from 350K/year. The only contract I've seen even in the ballpark was for a 737NG job in Wuhan. Not one person has been hired on that yet.

So yeah, I do feel very sure about that.

But I'd be happy to be proven wrong, just post the details to back up your claims of 350K, USD gross per year, of any widebody or other contract jobs. And no games with "loyalty bonuses" and "safety bonuses" and the like please, just gross basic pay qualifies, any contract can be fluffed up with other items. If you feel the details are too sensitive for public consumption, feel free to PM and I will post that your claims were verified without revealing any specifics or identities. Bonus points if you can prove you are, or personally know, someone working the contract in question. Paper terms are just paper.

Standing by.

I should add, that I am perfectly aware of a few niche jobs in Saudi and Afghanistan that exceed these contract terms, but they are either grandfathered from years ago or include unacceptable risk and as such are not exactly mainstream airline jobs, nor are they even advertised. And they are tiny in number and completely unrepresentative of the contract market as a whole. If you want to fly British mercs into Kabul in a BE1900 I can put you in touch with someone, but that isn't what I'm looking for.

[swordfish]

...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

Well, I didn't check your references, but that is a serious discrepancy - for a "have-not" province.

[unregistered]

lol

There are no contracts currently paying remotely anything like 30k USD/month gross in China. Or anywhere.

I wouldn't be so sure about that.

Well, I'm currently shopping for a new contract job as a B777 captain. As such I receive multiple emails weekly from every major recruiting agency with the pertinent contract details, including salary. They will not generally post the details publicly to anyone not meeting the experience requirements, which as sstaurus notes, are quite high.

The better contracts are offering in the 17-20K USD/month range, net of tax of their domicile country. Good money, but a long way from 350K/year. The only contract I've seen even in the ballpark was for a 737NG job in Wuhan. Not one person has been hired on that yet.

So yeah, I do feel very sure about that.

But I'd be happy to be proven wrong, just post the details to back up your claims of 350K, USD gross per year, of any widebody or other contract jobs. And no games with "loyalty bonuses" and "safety bonuses" and the like please, just gross basic pay qualifies, any contract can be fluffed up with other items. If you feel the details are too sensitive for public consumption, feel free to PM and I will post that your claims were verified without revealing any specifics or identities. Bonus points if you can prove you are, or personally know, someone working the contract in question. Paper terms are just paper.

Standing by.

I should add, that I am perfectly aware of a few niche jobs in Saudi and Afghanistan that exceed these contract terms, but they are either grandfathered from years ago or include unacceptable risk and as such are not exactly mainstream airline jobs, nor are they even advertised. And they are tiny in number and completely unrepresentative of the contract market as a whole. If you want to fly British mercs into Kabul in a BE1900 I can put you in touch with someone, but that isn't what I'm looking for.

You're flying the wrong type. B777 doesn't pay the best at the moment. Not bad, but not the best.

I'll let you work it out for yourself. I don't have time, or feel the need, to justify myself to anyone here.

Good luck in your search.

[complexintentions]

I'm quite aware of what the other types are paying, the B777 isn't the only rating I hold, just the one I'm current on. Some of the most lucrative contracts are currently on the B737, couple good ones on the A320. Sorry, what type does a Big Jet Captain fly, again? The only "Big Jet" contracts I've seen you could possibly be referring to are some dodgy 747 freighter ones, and they aren't the figures you claim either.

And so I still call bullshit.

I'll let you work it out for yourself. I don't have time, or feel the need, to justify myself to anyone here.

"Don't have the time?" lol A web link would have sufficed...

Fine, just as I expected. You can't back it up. Hopefully you can understand that no one feels the "need" to count your remarks as credible, either.

[GRK]

I've been lurking a bit on the "contract that pays 350K" subject and having a snicker. Sorry about that. I have to agree with Complex on this one. I keep a seriously close eye on the contract numbers as we use them in our own show to keep ahead of the quick changes the boss suggests we might like to implement! (Tosser) Ok seriously, the 350K jobs are fluffed up beyond belief and invariably change quite a bit between acceptance by the contract pilot and what the company gives one to sign upon arrival at the new job. It's very much a like it or leave it proposition. In addition, the "fines" adjudicated by those Asian companies for loosely worded safety transgressions make it a shady deal as well. Like Complex, I am also a wide body Captain who works offshore and there are very few jobs out there for current 777 (or my type which is not a 777) that pay what is claimed. A simple search will show that. SO if you aren't able to prove your claims with a simple link, you have zero credibility. Full stop.

[North Shore]

Flying privately for one of the Gulf region royal families, perhaps might pay in the $300s?
I know a guy who flies for the Emirati royals, and he's pretty discreet about his employers and what he gets paid. That could explain the lack of a web link?

[GRK]

Your friend is discreet because he likely signed something that requires his utmost discretion. And no he doesn't make more than 300…although at times he should! The argument between Complex and the claim of 350 for a jet job, and the lack of a link to those jobs is what those two are on about. There are not many flying jobs out there that pay more than 300 anyway. I would know where most of them were if they did exist. The claims made are pure bait to lure in the unsuspecting.
Fly safe!
GRK

[Eric Janson]

Where did you guys come from? Canadian/Jetsgo/C3 or similar? The experience requirements for those lucrative expat gigs seem to be wayyy up there...

Worked my way up from the Ramp. Been doing this a while - now employers contact me with job offers.

There are some serious negatives associated with all Expat jobs - a lot of people make the mistake of looking only at the money.

Not everyone is cut out to be an Expat -and it is far less lucrative than the ads would have you believe.

To answer the original poster

C$170k gross as Captain A343/A345 for a Portuguese ACMI operator.

-20/10 roster with tickets to/from home.
-Home standbys when possible
-Fly 5-600 hours/year

Not the highest salary but for the low hours and off days it can't be beat. Turned down 2 jobs in the Gulf to do this instead.

[Independence]

'Share what you make' seems a bit narrow. There are lots of locations and conditions that I wouldn't consider for twice the money. Decent money plus living where you want to seems a winning formula to me.

[Joe Blow Schmo]

CI, you're probably right in that there are no contracts offering the kind of money right off, however there are jobs out there that pay that much once you've put your time in. Nothing that you could get as a DEC though.

[hst]

I'm 4.5 years an expat after 24 years in Canadian aviation (and 3 bankruptcies) and this $350K/yr job doesn't exist imo.


A quick look back shows unregistered was interviewing for a Jazz position in Oct. 2006 http://www.avcanada.ca/forums2/viewtopi ... 72#p226572 and now purports to make $30,000 USD/mth. If he is to be believed as a pilot, I'd say he was a Jazz driver (if he got the job) who came through SSV (F/O B757) http://www.avcanada.ca/forums2/viewtopi ... 43#p428243 which means I would know him and there is no one that I know of making that kind of money on a Chinese contract from C3/SSV. There are a few SSV A320 drivers making $20,000/mth in Shanghai but that's it. Longevity pay as a "Big Jet" Captain isn't possible either in his case. I suspect we may have heard the last from him on this subject. If not, and I've gotten it all wrong here, the least you can do unregistered is tell us which Chinese airline is offering these kinds of fees. None of the contract agencies have heard of pay close to that. If you were just stirring the pot for shits and giggles (likely the case) then come clean.

[Tail Timer]

Four months at first job. Pipeline pilot in SK
$135/day plus housing. 5 hrs/day flying.

[complexintentions]

CI, you're probably right in that there are no contracts offering the kind of money right off, however there are jobs out there that pay that much once you've put your time in. Nothing that you could get as a DEC though.

Your comment about DEC's doesn't make much sense, contracts are nearly all for experienced DE captains and do not have increasing wage scales for the term of a contract. They're typically for 3-5 years and then you negotiate another one. So I have to disagree with the statement that there are "jobs that pay that much once you've put your time in". In the jobs that DO have incremental pay increases, I have colleagues at the top of their respective pay scales, with nearly 20 years in the Gulf and in Asia and not one of them makes 350K. So I'm not sure what you're trying to say.

Been an expat the better part of a decade and have met guys (and a few women) in crazy niches of aviation and have met only a handful who make that much, and are on contracts long since abandoned. Think Cathay A Scalers, Saudi Aramco hired in the 1970's, a few others and of course the crazy outliers doing truly dangerous stuff. But for current contracts, unregistered waving about 350K is not representative of reality. I think it's safe to say hst has hit the nail on the head.

If one is talking about equivalent net pay to their home country, that's a different story. At a marginal tax rate of 45% (top rate varies between provinces 39% AB and 50% NS), you'd need a gross wage of roughly $335,000CAD to net the same as a typical Gulf senior captain. An honest wage comparison with wages outside Canada has to consider currency and tax implications.

It also has to consider other elements. North Shore, I also know two aircrew and several cabin crew flying for Royal Air Wing (the Dubai royal family). The pay is good but nowhere near 350K. And their phones, email, and all internet/social media is constantly monitored as part of the terms of employment. To reveal details of their passengers or destinations would be grounds for dismissal - or worse. Worth the money?

The good point has been raised that there is more to the equation than just dollars. But since the thread is about compensation, it would be nice if wasn't based on fantasy.