Airline pilots at the majors get high pay because of very strong unions that went through a lot to get it, not because someone thought they deserved it. Actually very much the reverse, the airlines always know there is a line around the corner of pilots wanting to play with their cool shiny jet airplanes.
The other things the unions did was prevent “pilot pushing” at the majors, i.e you will fly the plane with the oil leak through the thunderstorm and we have your replacement waiting for you if you won’t, so don’t let the door hit you in the ass on the way out.
The aviation version of the El Faro is very unlikely at the major airlines, not only would the pilot be confident the union had his back if he diverted, the dispatch office would be burning up the radio bitching at him for heading into a hurricane.
You need to remember that most of what a Mariner gets paid for is bring away from home and locked down on a boat for weeks or months at a time.
Airline pilots are only in the air for a few hours, then it’s off to the company provided hotel with a bar, thats full of flight attendants and pilot groupies. Pilots are only away from home for a few days at a time. It’s nothing like the sacrifices that mariners going to sea make.
That’s an oversimplification. Trans ocean flights are much longer than a few hours. A commuter flight might be short but a pilot is flying several short legs a day. Add the time spent in weather briefing and pre and post flight responsibilities, travel time to and from the airport, simulator training time, medicals, etc and you have much longer working hours. Living in hotels gets old quickly and the job isn’t as glamourous as it looks.
In the last few years, you can add acting as a referee breaking up fights between unruly passengers.
“You need to remember that most of what a Mariner gets paid for is bring away from home and locked down on a boat for weeks or months at a time.”
Well, that and to go to jail or pay the fine if something goes horribly wrong.
It has occurred to me that my company’s TSMS is primarily a massive transfer of liability from management to vessel crews.
Yes. TSMS requires a lot of pencil whipped check the box bullshit paperwork of very little practical value and is mostly about shifting liability onto the Mariner. The owners are all for it since it doesn’t cost them much.
Another reason why being a Mariner has become a less desirable high risk occupation.
Yeah - the hotel groupie thing was more like the 60s and 70s maybe and even then not always. If you don’t have a lot of seniority, the schedules can SUCK BALLS. Some evil accountant somewhere figures out exactly how little sleep they can provide you with and still meet the letter of the law. One place I flew for decided the 4 hour layover while the plane got unloaded and loaded was prime sleeping time, just wrap up in a sleeping bag in the cockpit, there’s 4 hours for you right there and quit yer bitchin. Then there is reserve flying where your pager/phone can go off at any random time and off you go to the airport, if you are in line at the grocery store you just leave the cart and go.
Recently one major airline quit reserving hotel rooms, they told the crews to find their own.
Good luck checking all those boxes too. Weekly there are new ones added without announcement. Almost like they’re purposely ensuring you fail. Amusing what the desk jockeys dream up for you to check on a daily basis though.
This comparison doesn’t make sense. You have to do a comparison of Job/Responsibility between the two.
You can’t compare a junior officer responsibility or position to someone in control of a plane. Whether that is the Captain or 1st Officer on the plane (those only compare to Captain, ChEng, maybe Chief Mate and 1st A/E), but maybe they compare to Pilots in the maritime industry, then that pay is well above an airline pilot.
Maybe a 3rd Mate or 3rd A/E can compare to Head Flight Attendant. 
The junior officer jobs are kind of hard to compare to much else I think. I’ve thought about going shoreside and just trying to figure out what it even translates to other than plant operations was harder than just staying in and trying to get a few more years of firsts time before thinking about it any further.
There is no way I would trade places with a new ATR pilot if I were a new 3rd mate or 3AE. The pilot will earn much less money, endure a much more difficult apprenticeship before reaching anywhere near the top of the trade .
This is what I’m speaking of. A new first officer at a commuter line has all the same requirements and responsibilities as a first officer on a 777 and likely more stress (more legs per day, less rest), but is paid maybe 1/3 to 1/5 what the major FO is.
Meanwhile, a union 3rd mate/3rd a/e is probably around 120-130 with good benefits, pension, and right now in 2022 nearly guaranteed upward mobility.
Also I am pretty sure one can figure out how to be a 3rd without buying a boat yourself. Partly because boats are more labor-intensive than airplanes, there are 100 ways to get experience of some kind either for free or for a paycheck on a boat and practically none to do the same with airplanes absent getting on as a pilot for the military.
The kids that serve drinks on the harbor tour boats can log “sea time” of some kind, the flight attendants get zero credit for serving drinks, they actually have to fly the plane to log anything.
Very true. But having done many things in life and acquiring various licenses, I would not say flying an airplane is any more difficult or challenging than being a mariner (deck or engine).
So I don’t accept the “flying 777 harder, therefore they deserve more pay”. If anything, one can legally be qualified to fly a widebody airliner as captain much faster than one can be a unlimited master/chief. And the military has proven that 20somethings with a few hundred hours can safely fly heavies and fighters safely (essentially master/chief role). No degree is required to get an ATP, just 1500hours; a 3rd unlimited license is 1080 sea days or 4years of university…and then a few more years to get up to master/chief.
I taught people to sail before I taught people to fly and found the challenges similar. The big difference of course is your sailing students crash about 100 knots slower than your flight students do 
In both cases I had natural students and I also had people that just were not cut out for it, it took 100% of their effort 100% of the time to do a mediocre job.
- one prime example: Flight student X, not known for being the sharpest knife in the drawer, is pre-flighting the wrong airplane. Not only is it the wrong tail number, the cylinders had been removed! We all gathered round to watch out the window and he poked and prodded the airplane and opened the cowling to check the oil. He didn’t seem fazed by the missing parts and got in the airplane. WTF is he doing in there??? No - he can’t be THAT dumb, can he? We ran out the door but it was too late, he tried to start the engine and the noise of the unrestrained pistons smashing into things was horrible
Here is the biggest difference: The general public rides on airplanes, airplanes fly over their houses, and they probably have an airport somewhere nearby too. A bunch of crazy pilots definitely could potentially kill them one way or another. I would guess about 90% of the general public has no knowledge of nor interest in what goes on out on the water unless their fishing boat gets run into on the lake.
I would be bored out of my mind just riding around with nothing to do. My wife was annoyed when we were on vacation and I spend all day fixing wiring on the dive boat.
Aviation pays at the high end to keep people safe while enroute to “The House of Mouse” or grandma’s pumpkin pie at Christmas. Plane crashes are messy and expensive.
Mariner’s are paid to keep out of the public eye and the company clear of port state/USCG involvement. A pollution incident, an allision with a marina or bridge, and the ensuing press is bad for business. While not as “newsworthy”, per se, as a commercial aviation incident, a maritime story involves the owner/operator of the vessel, the technical manager, flag state, port state, class society, manning agents, deep dives into work/rest hours, and a very unhappy/unemployed/jailed master.
I am far more concerned about staying out of the news than getting my dirt from A to B…it’s rocks, not penicillin to Nome so I get there when I get there. No amount of money makes me go faster, but a low end pay scale sure makes me think twice about how much longer I will keep driving boats. For 1/3 the pay, I can slide ashore, go back to teaching, and have my weekends to do what I enjoy instead of having rotations stretched and arguments with the office about why I am worth more than they deem acceptable. Shipboard wages stagnated over the last 30yrs and a once great job is now a grind.
I would respectfully disagree. Ships operate on fewer axes than airplanes.
Except that it doesn’t pay high at all levels. Only at the top levels is the pay very high. And flying left seat in a jet that carries 50 passenger takes the same skill/judgement as flying one that carries 500. But the former may pay 1/5 as much.
Every single day people making 30-75k are safely flying passengers around the USA.
Well, let’s look at real numbers for airplane training. I solo’d in under 10 hours. License under 50. These numbers are common for many people. 1500 hours will allow one to get an ATP and, along with a type rating (a month or so of training), fly the largest jets out there.
How long does it take to earn an unlimited master’s or chief license?
After school or hawsepiping it, 6 years, if the cards fall properly. Could be less though if you get some time and half in the oil patch.
Better question - how long does it take to be a master, not just get the license? I got my ATP hours ages ago, but absent the once or twice in a lifetime hiring spurts, that isn’t even close to get a major airline to look at you.