Cost Cutting Airlines

Throughout my domestic flights in the USA, I have noticed that each plane has taken almost one hour to board as people do not want to pay $35 to check in one piece of lugguage. This causes havoc as the overhead lockers eventually are filled up causing people to stress and walk around the plane to find a vacant spot for their huge bag. Charging $35 is a horrible concept and is causing most flights to run late. If they charged say even $5, people would be more than willing to forego the extra cash for convenience???