ChicoG
However, not everyone chooses to learn from experience, and certainly it's my belief that there are plenty that benefit from the rewards of "seniority" when all they've really done is hang around doing the same average (or worse) work and benefited from a structure that rewards them just by being there for another year.
Since this is what happens in EVERY line of work, commerce, trade, profession, govt and commercial that I have ever seen and worked in (30 years of it since I left college) then you can see why they think that they should be allowed to get away with it too.