How it works in the real word
Breaking down the pilot bubble;
Many (not all) pilots start down a very technical path and may not be exposed to how the rest of the world as it relates to compensation. (career military folks can fall into this category)
Many pilots think about compensation based "scales" that have been long established in the labor union influenced airline industry.
Compensation in a corporate flight department is directly related to the companies pay practices that span the entire organization.(including executives)
There really are no scales, compensation lines up in ranges the typically include a lot of variable compensation based on a variety of factors.
Analyzing base pay at a lager corporation will never paint the full value of a career with a Fortune 500 company....