You're a pilot. You stopped counting hours long ago; now you count engines, instead. Your FAA certificate comes with page numbers and looks like a list of every ticket and rating the FAA hands out. Flying is your main source of income. You fly as a professional, act as a professional and get compensated as a professional. But, unless you fly for an air carrier, you may not be a professional in the eyes of the federal government. That interpretation comes from a rule issued in April by the U.S. Department of Labor that attempts to define who is and is not exempt from the department's wage and hour requirements. The rule's impact affects how employers treat pilots when considering minimum wages and overtime, among other considerations. Of course, being a "professional" in the eye of the federal government may not be a good thing if you depend on overtime to make ends meet. The new rule, published April 23, 2004, and scheduled to go into effect Aug. 23, 2004, has created a lot of uncertainty within the corporate flight department, at charter operations and elsewhere. In other words, everywhere "professional" pilots work. Both the National Business Aviation Association (NBAA) and the National Air Transportation Association (NATA) recently were forced to look at the new rules and determine if their constituencies were affected. That jury is seemingly still out, however. A quick read of the new rule shows that the essential problem has to do with the department's outdated understanding of how pilots are trained and compensated.
This is a companion discussion topic for the original entry at https://www.avweb.com/news/are-pro-pilots-pros