Well if our industry is so pathetic that it can't afford to pay salaries comparable to un skilled labour then maybe it should suffer the consequences. I'm sure all the factories who had child labour working for them felt that they wouldn't be able to survive when they were told they could no longer hire children.
On another note what abount the trend of pilots being employed on a contract basis . It solves all the employers worries- they arn't liable to pay award wage and the best bit-they have you over a barrel because if you treat it as a contract job and only turn up to conduct your renumeration based flights guess what-no more flights for you!! Talk about getting shafted! Damed if you do and damed if you don't.