While pay issues have been fought over, I mean discussed, elsewhere on PPRUNE, there is a big differential between the top of the ATCO3 scale and top of the ATCO2 scale, even before these rediculous bands are taken into consideration.
What has been true for the almost 10 years that I've been in the job is that in the UK, Area is seen at the elite job, hence the best paid. I asked for, at got, APR on my course (97 Course) because I assumed that my abilities lay in that direction, and frankly I didn't want to live in or near London or Southampton!
Now that I've moved accross the pond, I've had to get used to whole new pecking order. And I like it! Terminal controllers are the prima donnas!