It's been a while since I had a diversion, but if I remember you do get paid for any flight time yes. That's scheduled flight time, not actual.
It's a different story for cabin crew. They only get paid for actual time, so a 100 knot tailwind all the way home from the Canaries can dent their income. If after reading this thread you think flight deck have tough, the girls and boys in the back have it 10x harder.
Edit: after re-reading your post. Very rarely do you still push onto the original destination after a diversion. You either wait for the pax to be sent over by road, or the return flight is cancelled and you return to base empty. The latter is generally the case in my experience.
Last edited by SD.; 7th Jan 2013 at 01:09.