Not really. Health Care is not an open market where buyers search for a good deal prior to "buying" a procedure. My wife's "emergency procedure" is going to be more than $30K for a routine C Section. Two criteria influenced the decision to authorize the work. 1) She could have been at real risk and, 2) I'm only responsible for a fraction of the cost.

If we operated the last flight out of (Saigon, Bosnia, pick your war ...) then we could probably command an incredibly inflated market rate. However, people shop around to carry the wife and two kids to grandma's house.

I'm not sure the market for our services and the services of a Doctor are similar enough for a valid comparison to be made. Our customers buy our tickets. A Doc's customers are usually heavily subsidized and under duress.

In our history there have almost always been more pilot applicants than there are jobs. As proof, I offer that Wilbur and Orville had to flip a coin since before the first airplane flew, there were already twice as many pilots as the market required.

The secret to raising our pay rates is the same as it always has been, scope. We define Delta flying and Delta pilots broadly, so as to increase demand for those on our seniority list ... and in doing so we restrict the Company's ability to chose more lowly paid non Delta pilots.

Historically (if you chart this stuff out) scope is a leading indicator. Pay concessions follow scope relaxation. It is the opposite of the scope our union was founded on. Back in those days, pay increases followed restrictions in outsourcing.