If you ever think your career is in the toilet, just remember  

Most senior guys understand they only provide a marginal revenue improvement.  Other than the fact you can't find pilots so you would think they would want to reward length of service, but in better company times, I also would hire the younger guy doing the same job for less money.

That's not the problem at AMC.  They couldn't get pilots in the door.  To do so they added large incentives.  Based on seniority, the bottom 1/3rd are now being paid as much as 10-20% more (depending on stipends given to get them in the door) than the middle 1/3rd and in many cases equal to the top 1/3rd.

A retired pilot friend went through the interview process to see what the offer would be.  With more years aviation experience, but barely meeting flight minimums he was offered $10k more for the same job.

There lies the problem.