National Average salary is $71,500, it will be 100k in less than 8 years. How much do you think you'd earn in an airline today and where do you think that'll be in 8 years? Maybe you need to look at where the states are, then think about it.
There are far more average joe notallent's per capita in IT, trades or the public sector earning at or above the national average than there are pilots. Not to mention these guys wages are going up, not down, work 9-5 (8-4, hell 7-5 and it's still better than most pilots hours!) have weekends off, public holidays off and even have the choice to spend christmas with family (if they can put up with them). Sure there are still roughly 50% earning less than $71,500 but are they of the same resolve as people willing to work as hard at their career and sacrifice as much as those who become pilots/IT experts/tradies/lawyers/doctors/etc.
This is why they are struggling to find reasonable pilots, other than those who have a passion for aviation, the capable people with the resolve also have the intelligence to do their research and weigh up the pros and cons.
Hopefully for those of us who have that passion it results in serious shortage in the top middle, ala eu 20 years ago
