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BRIEF ON RETIREMENT PLAN - 2

public opinion resulting in the forced retirement of a large group of pilots might increase the cost tremendously. Conversely, the cost may decrease. However, it is probable that more than nine out of ten pilots would retire before age sixty on an occupational disability. Experience with the Railroad Retirement Act has shown a steady increase in the cost of the Program.

(7) No program, sponsored by the members of the Air Line Pilots Association, and involving a compulsory tax of as much as ten percent of each member's salary, would be advanced without an individual vote by every member. This vote should be counted on a union-wide basis, and not on a council basis. The unequal size of the various councils makes this necessary. No such vote should be taken without adequate time and provisions for every member to be fully acquainted with the provisions of the program to be advanced.

(8) This program is too ambitious and not flexible enough to meet the needs of the many differing groups within our organization. A ten percent reduction in take-home pay for a copilot during this period of inflation will reduce his take-home purchasing power to almost one-half of 1939 levels. Inflation and taxes have more than negated his wage increases. A three-year copilot with a $400 per month income in 1948 has a 1939 purchasing power of approximately $200 per month. Another ten percent decrease would lower that figure to less than $170 per month or less than a beginning copilot made in 1939. Such a move would definitely influence the caliber of men attracted to the industry particularly in view of the lessened opportunity for advancement now available.

Similarly, taxes and inflation have reduced the first pilot's purchasing power to a point where another ten percent reduction in take-home pay would mean the dropping of present commitments or a complete lack of accumulation of investment capital during his best earning years.

The compulsory, inflexible nature of this program makes it unadaptable to individual budgeting. It provides no reserve of ready cash and still it siphons off the "investment share" of a pilot's income.

Probably it is impossible to write a Retirement Program for all pilots without incorporating many of the undesirable features listed above. If this is true, it might be better not to write any. However, if it is possible to modify the present program, it would be very desirable to have a Retirement Program available to all airline pilots.