The Fair Labor and Standards Act has established federally mandated minimum wages since 1938; the government has been doing this for a while and there are many industry specific minimum wage laws. setting a minimum pilot wage is certainly not off the table nor should it be.

I strongly believe in a free market, however it is not perfect. One of the greatest injustices of Capitalism may in fact be the U.S. airline industry. Natural market forces exist which serve to do no more than further deteriorate this industry. It's known as the "race to the bottom." Sure, the public is served with lower prices and a better product (in theory) and those that can't fill this need and survive the competition are driven out. The problem is, you can't wait for the airplane crashes to discover the bad business. The industry has always been heavily regulated and always will be- natural economic forces undermine safety at the aim of meeting the bottom line. Colgan flight 3407 is bringing to light many of the economic issues in this industry which are only getting worse.

I in fact don't know a single person (read: consumer) who objects to the idea of paying $5-$10 more per ticket to insure their pilot is being compensated sufficiently to at least check in at a hotel for rest without having to sweat the financial consequences. The problem here is that no single airline can make this move without creating a competitive disadvantage for themselves. A change in rest rules and more stringent pilot training requirements (read: regulation) may serve to naturally force wages up, or a mandated wage will eliminate that competitive disadvantage because everyone will be forced to raise fares together. And at the expense of what? American capitalisim? I don't think so. What I see as a result is what Cpt. Prater of ALPA called, "The best safety device on any airplane - a well trained, well rested, and highly motivated pilot."

Pretty funny how 1. Training (read: expensive) 2. Rest (read: less means more productivity) 3. Motivation (read: good pay and a job at the majors!)
-All continue to be undermined in this industry in order to meet the bottom line. I'm not making this stuff up.

There is no simple bandaid for what we're dealing with here, this is an industry wide economic issue.