So forget that a pilot has to commute cross country for a flight because she can't afford a place to live in New York. At a time where there are 6000 airline pilots out of a job, why does colgan hire low time pilots?
Because nobody with experience is going to work for $18k.
How can there not be any correlation between pay and safety?
If the airlines wanted safe experienced pilots then they have thousands to choose from. But they decided to exchange safety for people that will accept the low pay.