If You See An Airline Pilot...He's Not Getting Paid

A commercial airline pilot's pay is misunderstood by everyone not in the airline business (and to some inside the business as well). So let me take this opportunity to strip away the confusion and set the record straight. The first thing you should know is that if you "see" a pilot, he's not getting paid. That's right, if you see me on the concourse, in the cockpit prior to pushback, doing the preflight exterior inspection, saying goodbye at the end of a flight; all are "off-the-clock" activities and I'm not getting paid. Let me explain. Pilots get paid at an hourly rate but the hourly rate is per flight hour not per hour on the job. See, our pay doesn't start until the aircraft is pushing away from the gate, and stops the moment we "block in" or set the brakes at the arrival gate. A typical trip has 3-7 hours per day of flight time but may have as much as 13 hours of duty time. Duty time usually starts an hour before push back and ends 15 minutes after block-in. Here's an example from a trip I flew last week. It was a four leg day from Kansas City to Chicago to Washington back to Chicago and then to Hartford. I was on duty for 13 hours but was paid for only the flight time of 7 hours. So the next time there's a three hour delay at the gate just remember that the aircrew wants to get going as much if not more than you do because until they do they're not getting a dime!