I always traded jumpers for skydives. One load of skydivers for one skydive. I did the same thing with packing parachutes. One parachute packed, I get one skydive.
I've had friends who flew jumpers for much of the year. I had one friend who lived out of the airplane, and would stay at a drop zone for a few months, then go elsewhere. He carried his Harley Davidson motorcycle in the back of the airplane, slept on the floor in the dropzone loft, and took his winters in Prague to translate for the National Library. Some thought of him a homeless bum, and never learned that he lived that way because he wanted to; he had a masters degree in electrical engineering, I believe.
It's hard to make much of a living in skydiving. As a pilot, jumpmaster, packer or rigger, drop zone owner, whatever. It's just not a high dollar business, though it's an expensive one. As far as pilot pay? What's that?
The best pay you can get at a drop zone is to be repaid in jumps. It doesn't get any better than that.