1nks- That has already been in effect for some time now. The industry is slowly purging the higher pay brackets of labors that were in the company's and replacing with cheaper people.
This is the new process to get around the labor laws and utilize the slowdown to there full potential. This is not widely known but there have been changes between companies where this knowledge was transferred when upper management changed companies. The new norm will be a pay scale closer to the minimum wage.