Originally Posted by Dharma

Ted, you've hit on a point that is poorly understood. Profit Sharing exchanged into pay rates raises costs, reducing the profit sharing payout. But what is important to understand is the formula of distribution. Let's look at the math.

Let's say $100 million of Profit Sharing is exchanged for an equivalent Pilot only pay raise.
This increases costs $100 million and reduces profit by $100 million (admittedly a simplistic view).
I'll be generous to your point of view and say the entire $100 million came from the 20% portion of PS payout.
In other words, the PS payout is reduced by $20. The pilot portion is about $7 million. This reduction is overcome by future compounded pay raises. The long term benefit outweighs the initial year reduction.

As well, you can see that the increased costs and concomitant reduction in profit and profit sharing is born by ENTIRE group of employees, while the benefit (the pay raise) goes only to the pilots.