My point is that they pay what the market demands because they fully control the market. At least they did until they controlled it so much that there are no more pilots out there.

There is American, Delta, United and a little bit with Alaska, and they control the entire regional market in the US. They have decided what regional pilots will be paid and that is set. There were some differences with Comair, Eagle, and Skywest but 2 of those 3 are gone now. All the other salaries were pretty uniform and any threats to those levels were quickly dealt with by the airlines.

Basically, the message from the majors has been to take what you are given or we will take flying away and you will be an FO forever.

I can only think of two Regionals that ever negotiated themselves good contracts and those were Eagle and Comair.

Even now, with no pilots out there, salaries are not going up. The only ones getting more money are new hires who are getting those bonuses. Why should Republic or Gojet pay their pilots more when they can just give the new hire a one time bonus. The contracts can drag out another 5 to 10 years and nobody will say a word or do anything.