In 1983 I was flying a ratty 402 for a ratty company in NM. One day I was in ABQ and this new cream yellow Beech C99 pulled up with "Mesa Airlines" painted on it. I got talking with the pilot. He said come on over we're new and we're hiring. A trade up in the airplane but a major trade down in pay, less than half. I recall I was making about 22k a year flying the 402 in 1983 - uncorrected for inflation 1983 dollars. Compare that with today's regional starting pay. Around that time I knew people flying Metro's making 50k a year - Old Air Midwest and SunAire in CA- (bought by Skywest) - both companies were making tidy sums of money too. To put it mildly; things change.