They obviously get that average from the top 10-20% and it really depends on the company. If you can get through an airline pilot career without getting furloughed or your company going bankrupt once, twice, three times in your life, maybe. After buying a 4 year degree and about $45k in flight training, you land yourself a $20k a year job as a copilot flying regional jets for 3-5 years. At the 5 year point at a regional, you may be a captain and make $55k. Go to a major airline from there and spend your first year on union probation as a copilot again, making $35k. Year two jumps you up to about $55k again. The real money comes when you make captain at a major airline, but that can take as little as 3-4 years or 6-7+ years. It's all about a seniority number and whether or not people are moving out up top and in below you. Once you make captain at a major, the salary goes up over $120k+, but again, if the company goes under or merges with another company, it's all about seniority number and you could end up starting all over again. You cannot take your seniority number from company to company or even your experience, like most other careers out there. So, if you spend 20 years at airline X and decide you want to go to Airline Z, you can't because you'll start back down at the bottom as a copilot making $35k again.
[ON TOPIC] I'm going to start bringing some sort of recording device the next time I go to a dealer so that when they tell me that they've only made 4,000 of a car, that it's a limited edition and too special to test drive, when it's time to trade the car in 5 years later, I can use that for when they low ball me on a trade because it's "just a Mazda3" and there are tens of thousands of them out there.
