Using PA Scales for 2017-18, they start at £45316. Master Aircrew (WO1) could progress to Level 20 which is £64717. Presumably, LtCdr Observer could progress to the top at £81943.
So that is the range of pay that military rearcrew would have been getting if there was still MilSAR in 2017/18. These are maybe about £2k pa higher than the scales when the contract started changing over.
Crab has mentioned CivSAR pay just breaking through £40k. A figure was mentioned to me back in 2015 of £42k which may have been the top end (and therefore not for entrants).
You can perhaps see why my first question to the previous Bristow UK SAR Director when I first met her in 2015 was "Do you think you're paying your rearcrew enough?"
Then there is the licensing issue. The current CAA regime creates the category "SAR Technical Crew". That looks good in the pages of CAP 999 but aspects of the regime appear not to have the power behind it to create a successor competence that is appropriate for this service. That is why, writing elsewhere, I coined the term "Trolley dollies in drysuits" to describe the authority's approach. The obvious way ahead is take the world-leading step of making SAR Technical Crew a licensed aviation trade. A significant number of highly experienced SAR professionals believe in that approach although many of them are not saying it out loud since it will cost their employers a few pennies. It falls to those without a glittering aviation career to protect to sound off about these unmentionables.
(Incoming!
)
Sorry if that muddies the waters for you para232 but even the best job in the world can be made better.
