Kelly Hall, a US Airways telephone operator who retrieves lost luggage for passengers, is afraid of what will happen if she is forced to take another 23 percent pay cut.

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"It is just scary," said the 43-year-old airline employee, who lives in McKees Rocks and makes $17,825 working part time for US Airways at an office park near the airport.

"There will be no way I can afford it," Hall said.

The knife could fall as soon as Thursday, when a U.S. Bankruptcy judge will consider US Airways' request for a six-month, 23 percent pay cut, enough to raise $200 million and carry the airline

through the lean winter travel season. But as the date draws closer, Hall and thousands of other Pittsburgh-area airline employees who made sacrifices during US Airways' first bankruptcy in 2002 are wondering how they will be able to manage their household finances with even less money this time around.

Hall's salary, which was cut 6.6 percent two years ago, could drop to $13,790. With three children, including one about to enter college, Hall is thinking about hiring a bankruptcy lawyer or taking on a second job.

"It is very frustrating to know you are struggling to begin with and now you will really be struggling," she said. "A massive amount of people are having the same type of problem as I will be having."

The cut, if approved, will hit employees in different ways, reflecting the wide disparity of pay at the nation's seventh-largest airline. Pilots and mechanics are the best compensated, while airport cart drivers, baggage call-center operators, stock clerks and baggage handlers occupy the lower rungs of the airline's pay scale.

In asking a judge to consider the 23 percent pay cut, US Airways argued in bankruptcy documents that the average annual employee salary is $45,822, lower than average salaries at Southwest Airlines and several large carriers, but still more than people make at low-cost carriers JetBlue Airways and America West Airlines.

Some employees, though, argue that the higher salaries of pilots and mechanics skew the total, providing the impression that all US Airways workers receive that wage. Salaries, as it turn out, vary not only according to job, but also by years of experience. For example, a rookie baggage handler with no years on the job earns $18,886 a year while one with more than nine years' experience can make as much as $40,539. A rookie stock clerk makes $21,091; a veteran makes $40,643.

It should be noted, however, that there are many more veterans than there are rookies at US Airways. Layoffs in recent years have culled from the youngest in the ranks, according to union rules, leaving the most experienced and highly-paid to run the airline.

Pilots have always made the most money at US Airways. An Airbus A330 captain with more than 12 years' experience today can make $200,266 a year, down from $289,068 before the first bankruptcy. A 23 percent pay cut would drop that pilot down to $154,204 -- a 46 percent decrease in two years. .....In those two years, about 1,800 pilots have lost their jobs, and some who kept their positions moved from the captain's seat to the lower-paid first officer's seat and took an additional pay cut.

Pilots may avoid the 23 percent pay cut if they ratify a long-term agreement reached Friday with the company that would reduce their pay by 18.25 percent.

Retired US Airways pilot Mike Oakey knows several area pilots who are putting their homes up for sale. Hall, the baggage call-center agent, predicts many more employees will lose their homes if the airline cuts pay by 23 percent or liquidates. The thought is enough to make her nostalgic for what US Airways was like 16 years ago, when she joined.

It "was spectacular," she said.

"There was room for advancement, job security and the glorious perk of travel. Now there is nothing," Hall said.

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