Comeptitive Pay

[General]

I have been working overseas for about 5 years and have lost touch with what salaries are like in Canada. Many of the posts offering employment use the term "competitive wages".

 

If any folks are willing to share, I am curious as to where the salaries are these days and what is competitive. Probably not far off what they were 5 years ago, but one never knows unless they ask.

 

G

[pilot5]

I have been working overseas for about 5 years and have lost touch with what salaries are like in Canada. Many of the posts offering employment use the term "competitive wages".

 

If any folks are willing to share, I am curious as to where the salaries are these days and what is competitive. Probably not far off what they were 5 years ago, but one never knows unless they ask.

 

G

 

Glad you ask!

 

Its a little more complicated than that.

 

First, be weary of offers for full time wages..."leading to full time position" also be weary of the term "seasonal" and " Contract" these little word games are used to bait you into paying a crap all year round wage say 3500-4000 per month and a low hourly rate say 50-75 per flight hour. You will be riding high thinking this will happen all year round and not a bad deal.. The real surprise comes when you are layed off in Sept-Oct and sent packing with ie at $1600.00 per month.

 

The far better way to do it is to ask for "real contract wages" this included 3-4 hour minums over the spring summer and fall say $150-200 per flight hour on average with daily minimums.. So you can make your 40-50K or more over the busy season ( 3 rotations of 30 days+-). Payable by invoice and GST through a corporation and write off all your expenses, car, office, gas etc. This way you know for sure the bills are getting paid.

 

This is not the case all the time though... the larger companies do offer full time pool positions.The wages listed below reflect work in BC with mountain rating and all the stuff. Alberta like Ft mac may be equal or more. Quebec well thats a different story and about 30%-40% less. Note that he cost of living is not 30-40% less. Also be weary of those that offer jobs in say Vancouver and offer stability, this cannot replace the fact that a house or Condo will set you back 400-500K. So do the math and find the best fit....

 

Flying a 206- 60-70K per year( year round)

Flying a 350 etc 75-80K(year round)

Flying a Medium- 80-100K+ ( year round) or seasonally of you make the right deal.

 

Personally I prefer overseas work as the rotations are better 6 on 6 off and 100K+ per year. Yur gonna need a ATPL and IFR though.

 

P5

[Gone Birdy]

Pilot5 is spot on by my experience (B206/AS350 in Alberta)

 

GB

[flyheli]

I have been working overseas for about 5 years and have lost touch with what salaries are like in Canada. Many of the posts offering employment use the term "competitive wages".

 

If any folks are willing to share, I am curious as to where the salaries are these days and what is competitive. Probably not far off what they were 5 years ago, but one never knows unless they ask.

 

G

 

 

I always have to say that pilot5 did a great job with that overview for western Canada. As a contractor you should have around 13k per month min but no guarantee for more than 3 or 4 shifts. Your pay will go up if you have lots of mountain and precision longline experience and the demand for those skills is currently really high...lots of ads out there.

 

IFR pay is not much better and especially for FOs really low (HeliJet, Stars etc)

[SuddenStop]

this public salary disclosure of one such government operation should be considered competitive wages across canada without argument.

scroll thru the list of names, find your buddies, find the pilots, find the engineers and get on board the gravy train. Hydro 1 is where it's at. All other operators take note.

Engineers and Pilots across canada are being underpaid beyond reasonable expectations. Forget your 40-50K.

Have any of you sat in your 1987 chevy corsica, and wondered what that bump was in your back pocket??? No??? well thats because your wallet wasn't overflowing with cash like these folks.

 

http://www.fin.gov.on.ca/en/publications/salarydisclosure/2010/electric10.pdf

[ThreePer]

:shock: :shock: :shock: :shock:

[northernexplorer]

Well Pilot5 has it on the dot, except for his comment on the east and Quebec, after 7 years all over west decided to work in Quebec, but when we negociated salary I nearly fell off the chair, to the contrary it was 40% more than I ever made out west. True there seems to be more work out here than in the last few years in the west

[shakey]

Well Pilot5 has it on the dot, except for his comment on the east and Quebec, after 7 years all over west decided to work in Quebec, but when we negociated salary I nearly fell off the chair, to the contrary it was 40% more than I ever made out west. True there seems to be more work out here than in the last few years in the west

 

Probably need to know french NON?

[DGP]

Probably need an address in Kbec as well as being able to parley vous!!

[General]

Fell off the planet for a while...my apologies. Thank you very much for your replies.

 

As near as I can tell, not much (well...nothing actually) has changed since my departure.

 

Looks like I will stay put indefinitely at this stage. Doesn't look very financially attractive for a return anytime soon. After tax, there can't be too much left in one's pocket!!

 

For reference:

 

Previous Job: All figures are in today's exchange rate.

 

Long lining in light/intermediate, Mon-Fri, 1000-1600 (max 5hrs daily), home every night.

 

Total package: $11,700/month

Tax capped at 17%.

 

I decided to change over to the dark side (2 crew IFR) after 12 years and recently took a job as an FO on an AW139 to fill in the other side of my logbook.

 

5 days on, 4 days off, 4 days on, 2 days off, home every night, latest shift gets me in the door at 0000 earliest gets me to the hangar at 0730.

 

Total package: $9000/month

Tax capped at 7%.

 

Thanks again for the info!!