What's the deal with Airline pay?

Michael Moore raises an interesting question. Do You Want Your Airline Pilots Working Two Jobs? For those of you that don't wish to read the article, here's a summary: Pilots have had their unions and pensions gutted by airline bankruptcy, and pilots at small regional airlines are making pitiful money. I'm not talking sixty grand, (half of what the average long haul pilot used to make). I'm talking seventeen grand. That's food stamp money. Thats less than a pizza delivery guy makes. In his film, he talks to some of these pilots, all of whom agreed to talk only on condition of anonymity. One of them walks dogs to pay rent, one is ten grand in credit card debt from buying groceries. One works at a local coffee shop, and wakes up at four AM to open the store. I don't want this post to be a missive on capitalism. If you want that, you should see his movie. Instead, I just want you to dwell on the type of system that rewards the type of person who put themselves through pilot training by paying them barely above minimum wage.

UPDATE: I was actually highballing the pay. Apparently a first year pilot makes less than a full time fast food worker.