ASTORIA — With commercial traffic along the Columbia River in a slump, pilots and the shipping industry are debating pay raise proposals.

Pilots say it’s been too long since they’ve gotten a raise, and their incomes have fallen behind those of pilots at other West Coast ports as the economy has reduced the number of ships calling at Columbia River ports.

But shippers, whose tariffs pay the pilots’ salaries, say the request for pay raises is coming at a bad time for the industry and should be postponed.

They say the cost of doing business on the Columbia is already higher than at other ports because shippers have to pay for two pilots — one to steer ships across the river bar and one to take them upriver.

The pilots earn six-figure incomes, although the bar pilots say more than half of their income goes to support boats and helicopters to get them to and from the ships they guide through the treacherous mouth of the Columbia.