For me, anyone earning £45K doing a job they love is extremely lucky. Perhaps some of you in the airline business went into it with unrealistic expectations?
I personally have a disability that prevented me from pursuing my dream of becoming a pilot, so it does kind of grate on me a little when I see people who are earning what a great many of us would consider megabucks, complain about the "paltry" amounts they are getting. You are lucky you can even do it in the first place. Granted, you put in a lot of time and investment, but the opportunity was there and nobody made you do it.
Do people really expect us to believe that the binmen who empty our wheelie-bins are on £45K? Yeah right!
I think some people just need to accept that the golden era of airlines is well and truly over.