Most keep forgetting at the height of the shortage, Regional Airlines in the US upped their pay significantly and Vietnam airlines also increased their pay.
Everything happens in a cycle, demand and supply, in today’s day and age, people are starting to value their time and skills.
A pilot now will take a job for next to peanuts if it means that it keeps them current, but this is in the short term. In about 5 years time, this problem won’t exist and the pilots will move around to the company that pays more than the other one with the obvious of trade-off of seniority protection and time till command till the next pandemic/economical crash/recession.
UO and CX will struggle to attract Quality pilots and that’s when the pay creeps up.
I remember writing a post in 2008 or whatever on Pprune, commenting on how the industry will recover and there will be shortage, the amount of abuse I copped and how wrong I was was astounding.