>Paying everybody 14k/year might work if they were hiring people to dig ditches. However, it's a seller's market for pilots right now

So why are pilots still earning less than bus drivers and having to apply for food stamps?

>However, it's a seller's market for pilots right now: if they try to cut the salary of a captain who's been flying widebodies for 20 years to 14k/year, he'll be off to Emirates faster than airline management can say "Oops".

Where, as Greenspun points out, they'll be paid the same as the rest of the new hires.