Theres is a bloody good reason for this. When you have spent thousands on becoming a pilot, years becoming an atco or sat over 12 exams to become an engineer, where any 1 little mistake by any of these people can cause death then its hardly surprising there is such a gulf in payscales...........
mrmagooo - I've think you've miss understood what the poster was saying - no one was suggesting that that ATCO's, Engineers and Pilots shouldn't be well compensated, more of the fact that people who carry out other functions working for a handling company are paid only just above minimum wage, and yes, there other responsible jobs out there such as load planning and producing loadsheets, a function which the industry now classes as about, lets say £15K/YEAR !!