Appreciate the info.
As an outsider looking in, it does seem that pilots can earn incredible amounts of money.
I'm 29, self-employed and have a good degree in Computer Science. Most people I know, including myself and those older than me, earn anything from £12K (full-time minimum-wage) to about £30K (teachers, police officers etc). There are the odd ones like solicitors who earn fantastic amounts, but they are few and far between.
Very few of my peers have been able to get a foot on the housing ladder without financial assistance from the bank of mum and dad.
To me, and a great many others, £45K is a lot of money and would allow you to live very comfortably. Anything above that is incredible.
That captains are earning £100K+ absolutely blows my mind. Other than doctors and consultants, there can't be many who get to consistently earn those amounts as an employee.
When you have a few years of experience rather than just a qualification, then you also might be worth £100K a year.
At the moment, you're 29 and so have at the most got 7 or 8 years of experience. You are at the beginning of your career.
How much does a junior solictor earn? Naff all is the usual answer.
However, 15 years down the line it's a different matter. One friend of mine is a partner in a big firm and took home £500K last year. Do you think that she's worth that?
Someone obviously did.
Qualifications get you in the door, they don't guarantee you a decent salary. A CPL/IR means nothing more than the opportunity to get a job. in the same way that a Batchelors degree won't get you a good job.
Being an F/O doesn't even guarantee that you'll ever make it into the left hand seat of an airliner, so trying to compare you and your friends current salaries to experienced airline captain is meaningless. You are at an F/O stage of your career and my first job as an F/O paid me £16K, so you're not a million miles away.
You aren't in the same position as a captain, but in a few years time, you might be. You won't be so surprised then about people earning a decent amount of money for what is a difficult job to do well, I'm sure.