The problem I think is that experience gets you nothing in this business. As far as the airlines are concerned all pilots certified by the FAA are legal and safe to fly anything. In theory, if the airlines really truly were short on pilots, you don't think they would put a 300 hour kid in the right seat of a 777? Or a 1500 hour kid in the left seat? There's nothing saying they shouldn't and its been proven in the past that they will do it. As someone said earlier, back in the day United hired zero time guys into the 727.

So being a 10,000 hour guy is great but if you aren't willing to work for less, they'll just get the 2,000 hour guy to do it. All that experience got you nowhere. So what we need to do is somehow make experience count and I think this ATP rule is a good first step.