unfortunately you're talking about the forces of supply and demand here. Remember, supply and demand influence price (or in this case, T&C's). As long as there's a steady supply of pilots eager to sign up for F/O slots at $84k (and paying for their endo's), you won't see companies voluntarily bumping up their T&C's. Therefore the T&C's stays low.
But here's also where supply/demand works both ways....if the supply of new pilots (who meet the min reqs) suddenly dwindles or stops (heaven forbid!) through pilots taking up slots at legacy airlines or airlines paying more, the demand then increases which in turn increases T&C's. Airlines like Jet* will then have to offer more to get pilots....etc etc etc. If we had 2008 again, then you'd see T&C's inc.
However, keep in mind also that, whilst QF has some of the best T&C's around, there's a reason why they didn't make $$ last year and Jet* did. Salaries & related oncosts along with fuel are two of the biggest cost drivers for QF. Yes its nice to be an S/O on $150k but is this sustainable for QF? not in the long run, esp if they don't inc sales.
Hypothetically**, in order to make $1 in profit, QF has to sell a ticket for $10 which could be:
Sale $10
Fuel - $4
Salaries - $4
Overheads $1
Profit = $1
Now think Jetstar....
Sale $7 (being low cost to fly the same route)
Fuel $4
Salaries $1
Overheads $1.5
Profit = $0.5
LCC's make their money from quantity rather than quality. The moment you try to change the above variables (eg salaries), you directly affect the bottom line. However, its not all roses for QF - lower sales means the bottom line decreases given the high fixed costs (salaries and overheads). A QF captain still gets paid $220k to fly an empty B763 between YSSY-YBBN as against a full one.
Morale of the story: everything is relative. Its unfortunate that Jet* pays what it pays but it does so to keep profitable. In the above Jet* hypothetical example, if you swap the salaries from $1 to $4 (like QF), what does that do to the bottom line? --> ($2.5).
Now I'm in no way defending airlines or justifying it....just trying to put things into perspective.
Pharoah
** - there are no facts behind this...just my way of looking at it. (now I shall run and hide to avoid the flames
)