I made the same $$s last financial year as I did in 1996-'97
There are probably many reasons for the decline in salaries however I came to realise some time ago that Datal Seniority serves to regulate labour supply in favour of the employer. I know that this is not a popular perspective to hold, however, I must speak what I see as the truth.
If there was such a shortage of pilots in recent years, or salaries should have gone up. In fact, during this period, I left a Datal Seniority company for a direct entry command and scored a $50,000 per year pay rise to boot
and they supplied type rating.
Merit based employment and promotional practices allow people to move between employers and chace superior T&Cs. The employer benefits from being able to source the required talent from either within or outside their organisation.
Datal Seniority means that you cannot vote with your feet. The employer knows that they can jerk you around because you wont leave because either you are close to a command, get all your rosters that you want or will go onto the 'WonderJet Mk. IV(-ER
)'very soon. Your employer knows this and this facet has become part of the IR landscape with respect to their negotiation strategy for quite some time.