What Can New Pilots Make? Near Minimum Wage

choi

Jack Nicas and Susan Carey, Hazard for New Pilots: Minimum Wage; Low Pay at Regional Airlines Deters Would-Be Aviators; Parking Planes Amid Crew Shortage. Wall Street Journal, Feb 12, 2014.
online.wsj.com/news/articles/SB20001424052702303874504579377181586540284


four consecutive paragraphs:

"Starting pilot salaries at 14 US regional carriers average $22,400 a year, according to the largest US pilots union. Some smaller carriers pay as little as $15,000 a year. The latter is about what a full-time worker would earn annually at the $7.25-an-hour federal minimum wage.

"Regional carriers are a key link in the US air-travel system. Big airlines, whose pilot salaries are much higher, outsource about half of their domestic flights to these smaller partners to save money.

"The big carriers set flight schedules and fares, sell the tickets and buy the fuel, leaving their regional counterparts little room to raise wages.

"That structure has prevailed for years, but federal rules implemented in August have brought matters to a head by increasing the minimum flight experience required for most commercial-airline pilots to 1,500 hours from 250 hours. The new law has sharply increased the time and expense required to become a commercial pilot, rendering today's starting wages even less attractive and crimping the already-tight supply of would-be aviators.

Note:
(a) There is no need to read the rest of the text.
(b) The title Google research returns--though not the one actually appears online--is:
What Can New Pilots Make? Near Minimum Wage
(c) In print but not online is a window AND a bar chart of salaries, that shocks me. I thought pilots--and likely flight attendants--in US (and probably other international airlines) make a bundle.
(i) window in print: "$22,400  Average starting base salary for pilots at 14 US regional carriers"
(ii) bar chart:

"Job Trajectory
Workers for regional airlines lag behind their major airline counterparts in terms of salary.

Occupation.................Ave first year base salary.........Ave fifth year base salary

Co-pilot.....................$22,400...................................$35,100
Regional airline

Co-pilot.....................$50,500...................................$101,900
Major airline

Flight attendant........$16,250......................................$24,768*
Regional airline

Flight attendant........$19,528......................................$32,202*
Major airline

Mechanic..................$37,357......................................$49,400
Major airline

* six-year annual base salary [as opposed to fifth-year for other occupations in the bar chart]
Sources: Air Line Pilots Association (pilot pay); Association of Flight Attendants (attedant pay); Akins & Associates (mechanic pay)

The Wall Street Journal"