your claim of 'punishment' is ridiculous...and assumes the younger and older hire enter delta employment from similar economic circumstances.

a retired O-6 with a retirement check and Tricare in hand, with perhaps as much as 20 years of Delta employment ahead, is likely to end up far better off financially than a 34 year old who has been slogging it out at the regionals.

Its that old theory of relativity thingy.

Nevermind the older guys are likely to have far less demands (or desires ) to hang around the house and therefore can fly the crap out of their schedules.....

ummm....or are we supposed to somehow adopt a compensation template that will rectify what did or didn't happen, economically speaking, in a pilots life before delta?