True, but the Republic rate is for E-175's, which are larger than anything Skywest flies.

The real judge of an airline, in my opinion, is the work rules and QOL. It's hard to gauge what 'the best' is in this area. If you live in Salt Lake, Skywest will likely be a better choice than any airline but Delta, and even that is debatable (if NWA and DL merge, what happens, plus SLC is not a junior base for DL, so you'd have to commute to the job for a bit - the lack of commute being the the whole reason you'd choose DL, likely) - in short, if you're living comfortably, then why leave?

Considering what others are getting and the apparent shortage of pilots @ the regional new-hire level, I would think Skywest could have done better for their junior ranks, and the EMB guys. Would they have done better if they were ALPA or union at all? That is impossible to know, but we all can speculate.