With the possible exceptions of UAL and DAL, managements pay has gone up because they have been able to keep the airline actually going in the face of a recession, high oil prices, and without their efforts, many pilots today, whom are employeed, would have long been out of a job.
Take AA for example.
Dispite massive losses over the last few years, they are now making a small profit.
Perhaps it would have been best for the senior management to have simply sold off the unprifitable routes that AA had, and concentrated on just a few...and promptly tossed out on the street the malcontents who now seemingly want to push AA back into the red, once again.
For AA to remain competative, costs must be contained, and cash stored up for both fleet renewal and future downturns in the economy...to do otherwise is extremely foolish, from a sound business perspective.
Most line pilots today have long forgotten economics 101 (provided they even understood it in the first place) and generally find great difficulty in balancing their own checkbooks, let alone how to tell management about financial matters with the company.
In short, the AA pilots can go pound sand, and I fully expect AA management to tell them likewise.
In fact, I would invite the AA pilots to go promptly on strike, and see their airline go just as promptly belly up...for it would serve them right for being such fools in the first place.
The Sky Gods at AA deserve nothing less.