...and many professionals don't earn so well either.
Interns (hospital doctors) work atrocious hours for a starting salary of about $45K pa, which is less than a public servant. This is after at least six years at university, normally more. Junior lawyers don't earn a very exciting salary either, and often work sixty hour weeks to get it.
The difference is that they can reasonably expect their salary to increase with experience, as can a tradie. In the current climate, pilots cannot assume that the same applies to them. If anything, conditions seem to be consistently getting worse.