Lets not fool ourselves here, 10 years ago the sector pay was the MORE than today. Dub based FO's were taking home £2700 punts plus basic!!! Now as far as i'm aware cars, property, milk etc is a tad more expensive now than it was in 1998.
Also it's all very well factoring doing 80-100hrs per month, cut that down to 50hrs & you won't be on the lash as much. Thats what's happening, all the cheaper newbee's get all the flying.
Also the new pay deal was 10% over 5 years on BASIC ONLY which is a 10% pay cut seeing as inflation is running @ 5% approx.
And finally MOL is starting to over crew the bases so as the ones who cost the company most get the least flying.
BTW this is all FACT so just think about how good it sounds now on 650-700hrs a year not 850-900!!!!