What Is the Income of an Airplane Pilot?
After completing the rigorous Federal Aviation Administration-mandated classroom study, in-air training and physical and mental testing, an airplane pilot gets to take his seat at the flight controls inside an airplane's flight cabin. Several factors may affect an airplane pilot's income. Pilots with the highest salaries are employed by the air transportation industry, which employs the most pilots, but location within the country can make a significant impact on their salaries.
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Up in the Air
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The country’s contingent of airplane pilots numbered approximately 68,580 as of May 2010, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics’ wages and employment report for that time period. For airline pilots earning at the bottom 10th percentile of their industry, incomes were $54,980 per year. The mid-range 50th percentile annual salary was approximately $103,210, with the 90th percentile portion of the range exceeding $166,400 per year.
Soaring Salaries
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Pilots in the Big Apple earned the highest salaries in the country, with New York’s annual statewide wage for the profession at $142,390. Kentucky’s pilots placed second, flying high with wages of $138,670 per year. Employers in Hawaii paid their pilots an above-average of $122,800 yearly, followed closely by those in Texas, who paid salaries of $122,660 per year. New Jersey closed out the top five with Garden State pilot wages of $118,420 per year.
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Flight Patterns
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A pattern emerged from several of the states in the BLS’s highest salary list: These states also had high employment levels of pilots. Texas, with the fourth-highest salary average, had the country’s highest pilot employment level. Illinois, which didn’t make the list, paid an above-average $116,000 per year for its second-highest employment level of pilots. California had the third-highest employment level in the country and paid an above-average $117,210 per year. New York, with the highest pilot salaries, had the fourth-highest employment level. Kentucky was right behind New York again, with the second-highest salaries and the fifth-highest employment level.
Dominating the Airways
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The scheduled air transportation industry employed the majority of people in the piloting profession; it also paid a higher-than-average wage of $116,930 per year. This was also the highest industry salary noted by the BLS report. The federal executive branch of the government employed the second-largest number of pilots, while paying the third-highest salaries, at $99,640 per year. Pilots employed by the architectural, engineering and related services industry earned the second-highest annual salaries, at $104,090.
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References
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