I think there's one key word in your post:
Quote:
Originally Posted by jerrywhite7  They need someone to set up front because of insurance or passenger comfort knowing there are two pilots up there. |
If they
need you, they should
compensate you. How many students come to you who need a flight review/endorsement/check out/etc and you do it without charging them? How many greeters at WalMart do it for free to eventually get a job as a cashier?
If the company is paying lower premiums on its insurance, why shouldn't they pass that savings along to you? If pax aren't comfortable with only having one pilot up front, then you are the make-or-break factor to the flight. All your points about how little help you provide to the captain are all valid, but it doesn't change the fact that the company
needs two pilots sitting up front, even if one guy is just warming the seat. If that's all he's doing, then they should pay him the same rate as you'd pay your own baby sitter.
Having said that, you don't have to take you pay in the form of dollars, but "getting to log SIC time in you book" isn't compensation (the FAA's viewpoint not withstanding), and a professional pilot shouldn't consider it as such. For example, I wouldn't see anything wrong with working a deal where you fly for X number of hours as FO, and then they will give you time in the airplane to get your PIC rating. In my book, that's compensation for services rendered. Logging SIC time or earning a job isn't compensation.