Bottom line is you can make as little as you want and you can make as much as you want. The work is not hard. If you want to compare apples to oranges, fine. At the end of the day(or year) it's the w2 that counts.
"Honey I made 50k less than a swa pilot of equal stature, but I made more per hour!" Says the delta guy.

Money talks and bull s&%t walks