Dignified and Old
February 9, 2024
So, earlier this week the U.S. Senate’s Commerce Committee shot down the move to increase the mandatory retirement age from 65 to 67. The measure lost by a single vote. Lawmakers succumbed to pressure from the Air Line Pilots Association, which spent months lobbying against the change.
The matter now goes to committee and there’s still a shot it could pass. But I wouldn’t count on it.
ALPA opposed the measure, but many of its constituents, including myself, did not. The union spun the whole thing as a safety issue, and warned of air travel becoming more “complicated” if it went through. The simpler truth is that ALPA has grown beholden to its younger members, who now comprise most of its membership, and who see raising the retirement age as an impediment to their career progression.
Which technically it would be, resulting in slower attrition, fewer upgrades and all that. But it’d be a small one. And these pilots too would have the opportunity to work an extra couple of years at the finale of their tenures, if they so choose.
For older hands like me, there’s resentment. Resentment because the luck and good fortune enjoyed by the newest generation of pilots cannot be overstated.
Entry-level salaries are the highest they’ve ever been. Even at the regional carriers, young pilots can bring in six figure salaries without much effort. Meanwhile at the majors, pilots are zooming up the seniority lists, with some getting captain slots before their 30th birthday. These pilots will be millionaires before age 40.
These same junior pilots skated through the COVID-19 fiasco without a hiccup. Thanks to taxpayer bailouts, they avoided furloughs and in some cases were paid nearly a full salary to simply stay at home for a year. Many took second jobs and collected two salaries.
For those of us of baby-boomer and Generation X vintage, such fortune is difficult to fathom.
In my day, regional pilots were making fifteen grand a year and paying for their own training. Most pilots didn’t make it to the majors until well into their 30s, if they made it at all. After slogging it out at the regionals and a cargo carrier for nine years, I was hired by a major carrier in the spring of 2000 at age 35. Starting pay at the time was around $30,000 a year.
Then came the industry crash in 2001, and thousands of us found ourselves laid off. Those who kept their jobs were hit with massive pay and benefit cuts and elimination of pensions as the airlines went through a cycle of chapter 11 bankruptcies.
My furlough lasted five years. When I finally went back to work in 2007, I was 40 years-old and my salary was about $65,000. That was sixth-year pay. And it was the most I’d ever made in my life.
While all that was going on, the retirement age was bumped from 60 to 65. You think two years is a drag chute on your career progression, try five. But we dealt with it, and now we too can work until that age.
Long and short, we have some catching up to do. Those two extra years would be a huge help. The money, the health benefits.
New-hires in 2024 are earning in their first one or two years what it took us a decade’s worth of seniority to make. Projected over a thirty or forty-year career, the earning potential for a pilot hired today is absurd. Adjust for inflation all you want; the differential over any length of time is huge.
Wars, recessions, and any of a dozen other calamities could set the industry reeling yet again, it’s true. But that doesn’t offset the tremendously good fortune the newest pilots are currently basking in. My peers and I faced those same risks, but without the front-end benefits of today’s generation. Things might go sour at some point, but if nothing else they’re making fantastic money in the meantime. For us that wasn’t the case.
The younger gang is having its cake and eating it too, frosting and all. Maybe it’s human nature; call it selfishenss or self-interest. If I were in their shoes, what would my vote be? Still it feels greedy, even petty, as one generation of pilots prevents its predecessors from making up lost ground.
Original Story:
DIGNIFIED AND OLD
Related Story:
THE REGIONAL RECKONING.
Photo courtesy of Unsplash.
Numbers graphic by the author.
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20 Responses to “Dignified and Old”
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Supply and demand. When I began flying I made $6,000./year and thought I’d hit the jackpot.
Patrick loves to fly and it shows.
Hilary Olson — thanks for the info. I agree money alone shouldn’t be the only reason for a job as should have some interest in the work. I’ve been interested in flying before (took a few lessons at 20 years old) but as trying to be financially prudent hard to pick up a hobby that costs $100- 200 / hour each time you go out. Plus the safety issue as doctors have a reputation for being arrogant and with too much money to burn — the beechcraft bonzanza was called the doctor killer.
I’ll research it more, but if could fly part time until 60 or 65 might be a fun encore career even if not as lucrative as someone who starts early enough to make it to the majors.
I always got the impression from Patrick’s columns from years ago that trying to make it as a pilot was like trying to break into music, only worth doing if you loved it so much you were willing to sacrifice everything else in life to that goal. Perhaps with the change in the market things aren’t as bad.
As a professional I have never persued a job because of the money even when for many years I was the breadwinner. I retired from it when I was ready and it didn’t give the same satisfaction. I wasn’t forced to retire because I reached a certain age or lost a medical endorsement. That all said IMHO I despise the thought that an individual is entering a career because it’s well paid and not for the love of being an aviator, nor do look in a kindly light if you still hold a first class medical ,passing all your check rides (a very humbling experience) then being forced to retire . Aviation always has had several ways you can become a commercially rated pilot. Doing it the hard way where you get so much experience which in the past was preferred. Nowadays if you are a good pc gamer and know some pc programming you are a good candidate. My take, there are some great pilots out there who keep their aircraft in a barn. I didn’t answer your question directly but it’s in there .
Is pilot pay so good that it’s worth doing as a now as a career change for other professions? Seems like as of now the pay is comparable to software and lower paid physicians? I’m making $250k in medicine working 17 days or so a month doing shift work at 47. Now with older kids I have a bunch of free time when they are in school (like today so hanging out at a coffee shop). Don’t necessarily want to pick up more clinical shifts as I’ve been doing it for 20 years but wouldn’t mind learning something new. If part time aviation shifts are a good option wouldn’t mind trying. I figured from reading ask the pilot before aviation was a labor of love where you have to put in a decade of poverty wages before getting a shot. If that’s no longer the case perhaps I should check out. What do you think?
And in the meantime you can be president of the USA at 80.
Agreed, fellow Gen Xr. There was a missed opportunity though….this is and should be framed as age discrimination, not so much as a cure for a perceived pilot shortage. One of my friends turns 65 next month. Today he holds a first class medical and has passed all his line checks and simulator sessions. How then does a birthday make him no longer qualified to be an airline captain?
Sad pilots shall not be able to push mandatory retirement by 2 years. A compromise could have been achieved with a stringent annual, with no appeals, medical exam and cognitive testing. Perhaps as partial personal out-of-pocket expense to the individual pilot. I have no ties to aviation. However experienced as airplane passenger since my first flight on a Connie in 1957. Sadly I predict this age related policy decision is a harbinger of future young against boomer things to come.
Funny you ask. Flew with a a man that was 70, overall OK, but the lack of airline training created a double whammy of non compliant behavior, disinterest in managing Human Factors.
121 trained pilots carry lifelong lessons in Aviation safety. Following the GOM – EFB’s displayed! Wing Walkers! NOTAM notes for closures! Brief following published STARS in mountain ranges!
135 operators simply don’t pay for CRM, TM or SA classes. 121 pilots holding First Class can def remain active crew if they keep the SA aids staying in the loop re planning and communication.
I agree completely. 67 is the new 55. I wonder if the EU is maintaining this due to simply landmass ie UK vs US kind of thing. Terrible loss.
As a 71 year old I’ll be the first to admit that my cognitive skills and reflexes have certainly declined in the years since turning 65. That said, I’d be curious to know the average age of those pilots involved in accidents attributable to pilot error in whatever from that may have taken.
Amen.
Too bad that rule doesn’t apply to politicians.
Adam has a legitimate point. While most people preserve good cognitive function past 67, research undeniably shows that reaction times become slower for older people. I’m not a pilot, but being able to respond quickly seems to be an important part of the job. Add in the natural variation in aging among any population, and it’s apparent that the safety margin will decrease for a significant number of pilots. If this were coupled with extra scrutiny during medical and sim checks, I can see an argument for extending the age limit, but as a blanket change it seems unwise.
Seems to me that Adam has a point. Yes, every individual is different, but how far to push the age limit? (think of surgery analogy you’ve often used)
That said, you feel resentment at others skating around obstacles You faced, then using their union majority to push thru something They want. Your resentment also reflects the very real loss of two years of earnings. Fair enough.
When you say “in my day”, though, you sound like my parents, who were children during the Great Depression. They positively revelled in the memory of their deprivation, & repeated those words a trifle too often.
But we all feel resentment about something — we’re axe-grinding, grudge-nursing, carbon-based bipeds.
The age hike amendment may be dead but, Ted Cruz seems to have been successful on his amendment. This will allow certain VIP’s (Ted included) to have TSA and/or law enforcement escort them through the aiport and facilitate their expedited TSA screenings. This should help prevent Ted from having future embarrassing moments when he jets off to Cancun during Texas snowstorms.
It wasn’t the Senate per se, but the Senate’s Commerce Committee that voted 14-13 to reject the age hike amendment, keeping it from becoming part of the bill and eventually making it to a full Senate vote.
A Reuters report said that the rejection happened “after the FAA said earlier this week it would prefer additional research was conducted before Congress raised the age.” It added, “Current international rules would still prevent pilots older than 65 from flying in most countries outside the United States.”
I couldn’t locate a roll call vote, but it looks like it was along party lines, with Republicans voting in favor and Democrats against. It’s just speculation on my part, but I’m guessing the Democrats voted as they did out of solidarity with the union — and we know that unions will be a key voting bloc this November. (And before we get all righteous here, I’m a registered Democrat but I don’t always agree with the party’s positions.)
While I would be frustrated too, trust me, from the cognitive deficit side, pushing to 67 would hurt safety. You would be shocked by how much the brain shrinks starting at age 60. Going from 60 to 65 was already a big jump. Going closer to 70….well, flying is executive function and that drops when we get older. At minimum you would need special issuance medicals done and the current system of pairing younger pilots with 60+ pilots as a crew.
Patrick, I would be frustrated too if I were you. But I would still argue to try and let it go.
Ultimately, this boil’s down to some of us living/working in better and worse times economically and that’s a big picture issue we don’t really get to choose. In your line of work the youngsters seem to be doing better. But rest assured there’s others where it’s exactly the other way around.
When I was in undergrad, my dad could easily afford my silly low tuition essentially out of pocket and I came out of a great university with zero debt. These days the students I encounter on campus have parents paying $60k per year (and this is at a PUBLIC university!) and when they finally do graduate they are saddled with 6-figure debt and get released to a job market that in spite of their world-class education offers them unpaid internships. I would not for a second want to trade with a youngster in my line of work.
Back in the day, my dad bought a house to have a family for essentially about 2 annual salaries as a Cal professor. I grew up just fine in that house. Nowadays 2 of my annual Cal professor salaries will buy me not even a garage around here — let alone something to raise a family in. On the other hand, my dad took a plane to see another part of the world once every 3 years. I get to do that twice a year.
We cannot choose the time we are born or when we’re in the workforce. Some of us will be more lucky than others. I’d still advocate trying not to lose too much sleep over it.
Love the Modern Lovers reference in your title!!