[blunte]

> * airline margins are razor thin, so salaries are comparatively low

Excluding executive pay, of course. Oh and excluding stock buybacks (which increases shareholder value, consequently greatly increasing the value of executive compensation).

https://www1.salary.com/AMERICAN-AIRLINES-GROUP-INC-Executiv...

https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/4515/000000620118000...

Razor thin margins which result in $200 million (give or take) in quarterly profits are not exactly sad stories.

In summary, the non-executive employees are paid as little as possible to keep the company operating. And by operating, I mean that the bottom line/shareholder value is all that matters. Safety is really just a bottom line consideration. If an accident or two happens, and an eventual death payout is made, as long as the bottom line is not greatly affected, there will be no change in corporate behavior with respect to paying people properly and not cutting corners.

[mlindner]

Arguments like this are absurdity taken to the max. Any executive's pay is a tiny tiny fraction compared to the combined salary of all the employees. Even if you set that salary to zero and divided it up all equally to all the employees (fractionally, so those who already make more get a bigger cut) the engineers would only get a couple dollars extra.

Secondly stock buybacks are similarly tiny compared to how much money a company actually has to give to its employees. Run the calculation some time. You need to be looking at revenues, not profits.