The Majors created the regionals as a way of lowering cost. Cheaper pilots, flight attendants, mechanics, ground crew. Gordon Bethune said it best in a post-colgan interview:

"They're all flying airplanes, but they're not flying the kind of airplanes you are with the same kind of standards that you're flying. So, you let that (regional) operate as an independant business because other people are in that business, but you can't afford to have a lot of excess cost and still win a contract, so it makes the management be cost effective."

Part of that "cost effective" was Rebecca Shaws income at Colgan during her first year, $16,000.

If you allow management to hire 250hr pilots again, wage rates will drop.