I think the "high salaries" are a misconception. Getting into the right seat of an airliner is a long process. After you've paid big bucks for the 4 year degree AND Commercial/Instrument/Multi-Engine/CFI you get to work for next to nothing another 4 years or so building enough time to get a look from a regional airline. Then it's 2 or more years there and maybe you get a look from a national or major. Then it's SO and FO for X? years until you hopefully make Captain--and more years until you hopefully move up to the largest equipment. That is assuming bankruptcy, merger or just hard times don't put you back at square one.

Don't forget that every job change puts you at the bottom of the seniority list and entry-level wages, regardless of experience.

I believe it's very rare for a pilot to get on with a major by age 30 and stay there until retirement. Most have to swap carriers at some point, so it appears to me that only a handful ever achieve the top wage.

Most career pilots were attracted not by the money but by a love for flying, and it's a good thing. Airline pilots live half their lives out of a suitcase. You fly all around the clock; pre-dawn, late night, all night, crossing time zones. In the course of a career you'll miss plenty of holidays, birthdays and soccer games. It takes a very understanding spouse to hang in there with you, many don't. And regardless of what's going on at home or how much sleep you've had or when you had a bite to eat, you'd better be on top of your game when it's time to shoot a wintertime minimums approach to MDW. I don't think most pilots expect to get rich from flying, but it's a demanding and sometimes unforgiving business. You devote your life to it and hope for at least a reasonable return on that investment.