Thanks Mr. Krueger for throwing some logic down on the thread. My opinion here from a second year economics background is that your wages component should not be a critical aspect of your business model. The reasons are that it is too unstable and flexible to make it something to rely on. If you were to do that at a time of undersupply and significant movement you would be setting yourself up for too many surprises.
What will happen when all those FO's you trained decide to move on to international carriers who pay better? You can get them early when they need the start but retention is the challenge of modern aviation HR. It doesn't make good business sense to not pay your pilots a wage that keeps them and attracts new players.
It's lazy to look for significant savings from wages by not raising them. Look to productivity and staffing levels, bargain to get more for a little more money. There are many ways to increase the viability of your business model without putting your staff offside and hence not getting the most out of them. This whole argument of labour costs being the thing that keeps a company alive is dated and scaremongering. If you had some intelligent managers they'd not go the simple option every time and put some lasting structures in place to retain, attract and get the most out of good staff. All the while having a sustainable, profitable and growing company.
Sorry for ranting but the forest trees thing is old.