The previous 2 posters have it correct. We will never see pay raises at the "entry level" regional job because there is a stack 5,000 reseme's deep to take our crappy low paying job. Mis-management knows this, therefore there is no incentive to raise the bar.

For example, take a look at Pinnacle's hiring practices over the past 5 years or so. In the beginning, they didnt need pilots as badly, so there were higher restrictions to getting a job. You needed over 1000 hours, had to pass a relatively hard written, pass a sim, then if you got hired, YOU had to PAY for your OWN hotel while in training. The company knew they would still have guys willing to come work there even with those restrictions, so why raise the bar at that time???

Skip ahead a few years to the 06-07 range, now Mis-management finds themselves deep in the hole, short on pilots. They cant get enough warm bodies in the door so they now start dropping the mins for the 200 hour wonder pilots, start to pay for the hotel AND pay people while they were in training. Its a complete 180 from a few years back. Its all a result of supply and demand. Right now there is a lot of supply of pilots and little to no demand. There is no reason to raise the pay/ raise the bar.