..planet poor FO..pay rates have been stationary for 20 years here..thats a 3% pay cut per annum every year..what planet are you on..?
I'm on the planet where businesses have to survive in the competitive environments that they find themselves in.
Remember what happened when US pilots applied the same simplistic thinking that you have come up with? The (idiotic) unions went along with it, forced the airlines to dramatically raise salaries, and two years later many of those airlines were in Chapter 11 and thousands of those pilots were out on the streets. Subsequently, the unions negotiated dramatically lower salary packages, just to get some of their members back into employment. Many of the pilots that actually managed to retain their jobs, ended up on lower salaries than they had originally been on. You should try reading a little, most of it is probably still in the PPRuNe archives. While you are there, read up on the Aussie '89 strike and the Ansett NZ strike. Worked really well, they did...
What a bar worker gets is irrelevant. Different industry with different dynamics. If you want to get paid what they get paid, go and get a job as a bar worker.
If you want to fly, there is (unfortunately) a rite of passage to be undergone, and that is low salaries in the early years. Airlines know how badly you want the job, and they exploit it.
It was only a short time ago that you were begging to get into an airline, and would probably have worked for food money. Now you have the job, you immediately start whining about the pay. Hey, you KNEW what the pay was before you joined up, right? And you were happy (even eager) to accept it.
Pay and conditions can be improved - just look beyond your shores - but it requires joined-up thinking, not just "gimme more money" rants.
I'm not saying any of this is good, by the way, but it is the way it is.