Field Required
We are talking about a highly desirable (for some reason) and highly vocational job with no serious barriers to entry, other than the obvious financial ones. There is a vast oversupply at the bottom of the market, and there will be for some time. As an airline bean counter, how could you justify to the board and to your shareholders that you are willing to pay a decent wage to employees who would be prepared to work for free or even pay the airline for the privilege of being allowed to come into work?
I stand by what I've previously stated: sub-£50k for a captain will be the new standard, and minimum wage at best will be the new standard for FOs. I know for a fact that there are already plenty of cases of cadets working second and third jobs on their days off (and even before or after an FDP) to make ends meet. It's highly likely that we will see an extension of that. Unless and until there's a serious incident where such fatiguing practices are held to be a causal factor, nothing will change. Even then I wouldn’t be holding my breath: the company in that case would simply point to the Part A where it states that a pilot must not operate if he knows or suspects he’d be fatigued.