Pinnacle was a small regional when I got hired there and paid average to above average on the CRJ-200 among the regionals. The 200 pay was within a couple dollars an hour of ASA's for the most part. There were no large RJ's anywhere in sight... in fact, the agreement with DL for the large RJ's didn't happen until I was already at mainline. As has been stated, the CRJ-900 (and EMB 170 series) are true DC-9 size aircraft replacements.

I am in no way an almighty mainline pilot, and I don't appreciate you reading into it that way. Joe voraciously defends his chosen career position to stay at an outsourced feeder we've fed more and more flying over the years... which was a horrible decision. Even when I as in high school, I learned about airlines outsourcing and couldn't understand why that flying wasn't done by the mainline pilots. It has been a long term goal to fix that, and now to restore the career to it's true potential after all the cuts the last decade.

Besides, it's really funny when he gets riled up.