I was listening to someone on the radio yesterday bemoaning the fact that uni degrees such as medicine and so on are attracting big HECS fees and how sad it all is; got me thinking about the sacrifices that people make to get a CPL and work their way up the ladder - much larger payout and lesser rewards, generally. I can't think of another profession where you have to shell out so much just to get a foot in the door.
I got my training with the military, and while it was no picnic, they were paying me, so I haven't experienced what most of you guys have. My hat's off to the people who put in the hard yards to work their way through the system and keep their motivation up.
That's probably the key to why GA wages are low - pilots want to fly full stop, so the lure of high wages doesn't have to be there to make them put in a lot of work to do so.