We'd all like to see pay go up, and time away from base go down, but if you think about it differently, better pay, better work rules, and more time at home, might increase the problem slightly too.

Pay will give retention (but we don't really wanna be retained...that bad) however it would be nicer to make more before going onto the next job (as that is the objective of most of us in this industry...move up)

Better work rules keep us happy, but most aspiring airline pilots have no clue as to what the work rules are...in college i knew two things "don't go to mesa, don't go to gojet" that's about it...the rest was a crapshoot, wasn't really sure about what schedules were like, bid periods, pref bidding, block or better, duty rigs, trip rigs, etc....And i don't see "regional" contract 101 being offered in the universities anytime soon.

And the more time the airlines give us at home, the more pilots they'll need to cover the flights. We all know we're "overworked" as it is, and heck, at my company the majority of FO's are sitting with 14 days off a month. If you're able to give your pilots half a month off, allow them to fly less hours, and pay them more, management is going to have to get tons more butts in the seats to cover what the other pilots have "given up"

Another thought. I wonder if the problem can actually fix itself quickly, regionals are having a tough time with staffing, flight schools are seeing less pilot candidates enter their doors, flight instructors are disappearing, and many at the university level aren't getting their CFI rating because it's "not required" anymore, or at minimum not a necessity...If the regionals lower the mins further, that'll help some, but hurt the bottom line, which is they'll continue to need more pilots, and the further the minimums go, the less pilots they'll have to pool from. Where's it end?