This has ALWAYS been true, and what made and makes the stewardess job glam and paid well:

"Once a flight attendant has been in the job for more than 10 years, the situation improves dramatically. The pay rate at the top of the scale, 16 years into the career, is $59.42 per flight segment, 2.4 times the starting rate. In addition, more senior flight attendants get first dibs on longer routes that pay more for a given time commitment. A trip from Anchorage with a 24-hour layover in Honolulu, spanning three days and counting as 16 flight segments, would earn Raynor nearly $1,000 gross while a new attendant on the same flight would get less than $400. And a new flight attendant would likely only get such a choice flight by being on call when an assigned attendant is out sick."

It was treated as an exclusive job you had to pay your dues in to get to the top- very much like architect or reporter or doctor or editor etc etc etc.

And those careers still are.

The great problem come when people went into career paths EXPECTING TO EARN TOP PAY UP FRONT. This is a new phenomenon, and inexplicable to me as no one even hid how it works in many industries.

NO, if you are a single mom or alone without a spouse or family to support you you CANNOT just choose any old career and think it will be good pay and hours and opportunity from the jump!