Plane4sale, you contradict yourself.
You say you want a salary structure then your very last sentence says, 'And obviously, guys with a few thousand hours might be able to negotiate a better package.'
Why bother having an open scheme when there are secret deals being done.
Secondly, you have to understand the contract business, and I will be honest I also didnt really grasp it until I was several years into it, but they are not truely interested in loyalty or long term employees, hence the name, 'contract pilots'.
They want you for a period of time, while you are fairly inexperienced and therefore willing to take any job offered. In return, they dont have to pay huge amounts because you dont normally have too many options.
Dont get me wrong, the money is not too bad for that stage of your flying career, but as you become more experienced and more employable, you feel you are worth more, but to them, you will still only be doing the job you were doing for them 2/3/4 years earlier, so why should they pay you more.
So, they are actually happy for you to leave and so the cycle starts again.
Dont be naive and fooled into thinking contract flying is a career, or that their is any value in loyalty, because the operators have to pay the directors and owners of the planes and thats all they are interested in doing, they are a business to make money after all.
I think as soon as you see them as a stepping stone, because they only ever see you as temporary, the easier it becomes to accept the way things are and see contract flying for what it really is.
Nothing synical about it, just how it is.