Take the combined wages of a four-person crew from any other airline in the world and compare it to that of Qantas’. You’ll find that it is probably quite a lot less at QF.
The SOs aren’t paid enough considering they are required to know how to do the exact same job as the Skipper if the need ever presented itself.
Don’t fall into the trap of diminishing your colleagues worth simply because QF created a new rank to give the illusion that those pilots are worth less just to save a buck.