Agreed with most of the facts and all of the concept. This industry has been evolving drastically since the Airline Deregulation Act of 1978 which, IMHO, was one of the reasons EAL, Pan Am, TWA plus many others exist now only in the history books.

The system is indeed broken. Hiring is largely done by office pogues who rarely, if ever, step on the ramp. The reality of life in the cockpit is as foreign to them as life on Mars yet they're the ones selecting who is going to be a "good employee" and who isn't.

The pay issue is different. If the corporate types had their way even legacy airline pilots would be making the same as the building janitor, if not less. To a large extent, regional pilots are their own worst enemy where pay is concerned. In the past, most were "too busy" to become involved in union activities since they didn't plan on sticking around long enough to see a new contract. "Look, dude, I'm only here for two years. You do whatever you want with that union stuff. Just leave me out of it". Now they are living under the conditions which they and their predecessors allowed to happen.

The American pilot "Green Book" contract is about 2 inches thick. The Eagle pilot contract is half that thickness. Why? Largely due to the fact Eagle has only been around for a third of the time the American pilots have been unionized. Strong unions generate strong contracts. The caveat is that those contracts take time to generate. Lots of time is required, such as 3-4 contract periods, before a regional airline can expect to see "career" level improvements to the contract.


Airline Deregulation: The Concise Encyclopedia of Economics | Library of Economics and Liberty

Air Transportation: Deregulation and Its Consequences