Figuring airline-pilot pay is tricky. You cannot take an hourly rate and apply a 40 hour work week. Using the pay charts below with a 40 hour pay system would make it appear pilots are loaded, and that they needlessly bellyache about low wages.

The best way to figure a pilot’s pay is to take the hourly rate and multiply it by the minimum monthly guarantee. Pilots will likely make a little more than this, as they often work a couple hours above minimum guarantee. But this is a good starting point.

The minimum guarantee is a salary of sorts. It says that as long as the pilot does what is scheduled, they won’t drop below the specified amount. If vacation or sick time is used it will be deducted from an accrued bank to make up for the lost flying and the guarantee will be maintained. Pilots can drop legs or whole trips for various reasons without pay and go below the minimum guarantee.

Minimum guarantee varies between airlines but often ranges between 70 to 80 hours per month. Guarantees will usually vary within an airline depending on the type of schedules worked. If a pilot is working a set schedule, usually known as holding a line, the minimum would be different than if a pilot was on a reserve schedule. Different reserve schedules even have differing minimum guarantees.

The way a pilot accrues hours earned is set by a complex system. The typical system takes three different ways of accruing hours, using what would be the highest of the three for a given trip as the hours a pilot accrues. The three methods for accruing pay are time away from base, duty time, and block time.

The time away from base calculation takes the time from the beginning of a trip to the end of the trip and divides it by a specific amount. If I start a trip on day one at 7:00 AM and end at 7:00 PM on day three I will be away from base 60 hours. If the rig at my company is 4 to 1, I would divide 60 by 4 to come up with 15 hours earned. The second way to find pay is by duty time. During that three day trip, I wasn’t working 60 hours, just away from base 60 hours. If I spend 12 hours working each day I would have 36 hours of duty time during this trip. If the rig at my company is 2 to 1 for duty then I would divide 36 hours by 2 to come up with 18 hours earned. The last way typically used is flight time, also known as block time. If, during this three day trip I flew 7 hours of flight time each day I would have 21 hours of block time. With a rig at my company of 1 to 1 for block time then I would earn 21 hours of pay. In this example, the block time pays the highest, so the I would earn 21 hours of pay for this trip.

The rigs system above is common at most airlines. Most airlines credit more pay if a flight takes longer than scheduled, but they won’t credit less than the scheduled time. And most airlines treat cancelled flights the same as if you actually flew it for pay purposes. Some regional airlines don’t use the rig system and only pay based on block time flown. These airlines don’t pay extra for flights taking longer than scheduled or pay protect for cancelled flights other than the minimum guarantee.

How the typical trip pays at an airline has great influence on the time pilots have off. If the airline typically has shorter flights, most trips will be paid based on time away from base and this will actually cause pilots to be away from home more to accrue the minimum guarantee. If an airline typically has longer flights, most trips will be paid based on block time and pilots don’t have to be gone from home as much to earn the guarantee. Widebody airplanes have very long flights and pilots of these accrue a great deal of block time in very few days. This is why they have so many days off each month.

There are situations where pilots can accrue pay at a higher rate. On set holidays pilots can earn a holiday rate. Trips that aren’t yet assigned are often available for a pilot to voluntarily add to their schedule as a premium pay trip. If a pilot is drafted, or forced to fly a trip on their days off, they will be paid at a higher rate. Or if a trip is extended beyond the scheduled time, the extended time is paid at a higher rate.

Pay rates are dependant on the position of the pilot (captain or first officer), the type of airplane the person flies, and how long the person has worked for the airline. Looking at the Skywest pay chart above, you can see the pay rate for a year 1 first officer flying the EMB120 is $22. The pay rate for a 10 year captain flying the CRJ900/CRJ700 is $81. Poking around the Alaska pay chart at left, the 10-year captain rate is $166. If you want to get a rough idea of what pilots make at each of these airlines, both have a minimum monthly guarantee of 75 hours for line holders.

When comparing airline A to airline B on pay, how long it takes to upgrade from first officer to captain needs to be considered. If the upgrade at airline A takes 5 years and the upgrade at airline B is 1 year then during year two you could be a captain at airline B. So, to compare the two airlines you would need to compare year 2 first officer pay at A to year 2 captain pay at airline B.

Per diem is yet one more thing to add to the complication. Pilots are paid per diem from the time they clock in to start a trip until they are done with the trip. In the example from earlier, a pilot would be paid 60 hours per diem for the 60 hours spent away from base. If the per diem rate at the airline is $2 per hour then the pilot would make $120 per diem on the trip. Per diem is intended to pay for travelling expenses while on the trip, such as food.

Now that you are coming up for a breath of air all this likely seems needlessly complicated. But this system is a result of years of negotiations and compromises between airline pilot groups and the employers. It was built to represent the interests of pilots while allowing a little bit of flexibility for employers.