Let's not lose sight of the fact that airlines only exist if they can economically move people from point a to point b. i.e. the company exists only because of the customers, not the employees.

The "stick it to the customer to keep our pay higher" attitude will not win out in the long run.

Your statement above is telling the customer that he needs to accept less choices and pay more so that the two guys in the front of the airplane can move from the 95th up to th 97th percentile of highest paid people in the country.