SASless,
I think no ex-mil pilot in UK has ever been happy about the low public services pilot salaries. Possibly very different west of the Atlantic. I earned a UK military pension but certainly couldn't afford to live on it. Few pure fliers could when I left the military, nor can they today.
There were very few civvy rotary wing jobs at all in the early 90's. The best qualified merely took what was available. I was lucky enough to go abroad instead. When I returned home nearly five years later the public services salaries had not increased and jobs were still scarce. Should folk like me have refused to work, left the profession entirely, or what?
I eventually left that type of work when, instead of the long promised direct employment (rather than through a contractor), which would have given us a reasonable salary, the pilots on my unit were offered a 15% salary cut and a week less annual leave to stay in post under the employment of a "cheaper" employer who had been awarded the new contract.