This is not about this year's pilots salary budget. My guess is they have worked the figures over the next 5 or 10 years. Into this will be factored:
Savings on Provident Fund contributions
Savings on Profit Sharing
Savings on Sickness
Savings on Insurance/Loss of Licence
Etc Etc. There are probably other advantages.
Each year they can tweak the hourly allowance and call it a raise but the spreadsheets have been run for a few years ahead. It results in a big saving in the long run. That means a big cost to us.