I think it's worth mentioning that most pilots (that is, with the exception of airline long haul crews, short haul captains, and a few people in specialist jobs) make a lot less money than most engineers.
I make a good comfortable - but far from exceptional - salary as an Engineer i/c and a CEng and have no great complaints. I also hold a CPL with a basic instructors qualification: if I did flying instruction full time (as opposed to a few evenings and weekends as at present) I'd be dropping my pay to maybe 30% of what I make in the day-job. I have friends who are commercial instructors with fATPL/IR/ME/FI/etc... making around £25k: very poor money compared to most engineers whether licenced or graduate; certainly compared to an engineer with as many years post-qualification experience as they have. It would cost me maybe £12k to add on the bits that qualify me to fly RHS in an airliner, and take a 40% pay-cut to do so.
The best paid pilots certainly do make more than the best paid engineers, the worst paid pilots however make far less than the worst paid engineers. We have a very different pay structure to the 2-winged master race. A new LAME with a set of licences may well be doing better than a new F/O with the same airline! That F/O of-course having run up £30-£80k in training debt - far more than any engineer is likely to spend getting qualified. A new engineering graduate with a BEng on the graduate training scheme is probably on £25k - similar to a new F/O, but with probably half the training debt.
Yes, I'd like to raise our status and income, but I really don't think that it's quite as bad, particularly compared to pilots, as some have painted it here.
G