They always say that past performance is not an indication of what will happen in the future. Without getting emotive, I thought I'd publish the recognised facts.
In 1992 an EK First Officer made 15500 AED
In 2004 an EK First Officer makes 16760 AED
The UAE Goverment shows the inflation rate on its Ministry of Planning website.
http://www.uae.gov.ae/mop/group/st_group28/ch_09.htm
From 1990 -2000 the General Retail Price Inflation was: 44.9%
From 1990-2002 it was 51.2% (2002 figure corrected to 1990 base)
This means that to have the same buying power as in 1992, even assuming that the allowance package had not decayed, a new First Officer would be required to earn: 23,405AED
As Allru says the statistics speak for themselves. Not a pretty picture, the pay has dropped in real terms, so that a new Captain now earns less than a First Officer in 1992. It must make it mighty difficult to plan for retirement. At the current rate of price inflation coupled to the current rate of salary inflation, by 2012 a new Captain will earn in real terms half of a 1992 First Officers salary.