I will give you an example, recently Apple, Google, Oracle, etc were sued in Silicon Valley for the top execs getting together, and coming to an understanding that they wouldn't hire employees from each other. Instead they would only hire from outside sources, interns, and recent college grads. This drives down or stagnates labor costs at these companies since there is no competition among the top firms. Regional airlines are in a sense the exact same thing. US airways was flooded with apps when they started hiring in the last year, would this have been the case in the 1980's if they were paying almost half the compensation package that Delta offers? The answer is obviously No; They would have to increase there pay to match that of Delta and the other carriers to attract pilots, lower standards, or go out of business.