The very big boys in the tops of the trees earn in excess of £100,000 pa. The Senior F/O's are in the order of £70,000 and Junior F/O's £20,000. And all have good pensions. However, most companies are aggressively fighting to reduce our terms and conditions and the people who earn the above figures are now an endangered species.
Are they (and people like me who earn very little by comparison to the above figures) worth it? You bet, absolutley!. I have invested two years and £50k or so for my training - the company haven't!. I have done my time, learnt how to operate according to my company's rules and standards. So therefore, me and my colleagues are correctly entrusted with the lives of passengers and millions of dollars worth of company assets.
When things go wrong, which does happen, it is expected that a management get will just get a piece of paper in the form of a trip report or similar rather than a rude awakening from a TV crew on their door step. For that service, I consider that we are damn good value for money.
When airlines pay peanuts they will get monkeys as pilots!