Its hard to get a pay rise when people work for less in the left hand seat than those in the right hand seat.
I wonder if it it is widely known in the industry that a significant number of captains have taken commands on 747 for less money and conditions than FOs.
Sodapop is right, turnandburn: for those already on bases, volunteering for a freighter command was a substantial
raise with respect to F/O payscale, plus you were getting a command directly on your base: practically a no-brainer if for whatever reason you weren't interested in coming to HKG and collect housing. If you were in HKG and were happy to stay, different story.
That was IMHO what was so great about CX until a few years ago, the great career choices available: want to make loads of money? Hey, join as an S/O (or do your three years of "penance" as a based freighter F/O then come to HKG), then start collecting houses and boats. Oh, you're more of a lifestyle junkie? No problem, join as a DEFO on a base, do your three years of freight and then never see another freighter again (ah, the days of FACA), work twelve days a month max and sleep for half the flight. Prefer a widebody command in your basing area? Well, the rosters won't be wonderful and the pass rate on the Classic isn't great, but if you can stomach that, could you start, er let's see, yesterday?
As we all know most of these are choices have been pruned away (as have many other of the reasons to be here, temp bases, base swaps etc etc), but getting upset at colleagues who legitimately chose a different career path to the one you chose doesn't help.