Cjam and others,
I honesly have no association with a GA company and I'm not an owner etc etc.
I'm saying that the public may be surprised that pilots get lousy money but it's not going to be keeping them awake at night because hey have their own mortgage and kids to worry about so Larry the bush basher charter boy is just going to have to take care of himself.
My second point is that pilots must be held just as accountable as their dodgey boss. If pilots are knowingly breaching regs just to keep their jobs then they are just as guilty I'm afraid. The fact is that if a pilot accepts the responsibility for the lives of his or her pax the he or she has an obligation to operate within every aspect of the regulations and orders. If they get sacked for refusing to do so and that sacking has a negative effect on their career as they are branded "too honest" to be employed, what does that actually say about the stae of the industry.
I got sacked (walked off after huge argument actually) from my first ever GA flying job for complaining to the chief pilot about flying a single overwater with no life jackets. I went on and found another job without any hassles and that arsewipe operator folded up a year later so I stand by my opinions.
The thought of facing the family of a person who was killed or injured by my deliberate breaches was the the one thing that kept me from doing it. Making an extra few dollars a week would not have made me a safer pilot. Likewise, I would not have deliberately broken more rules if my pay was cut so if that's how it works out there today then it is, as gaunty says, game set and match......... for the whole industry.