Intangibles like respect, responsibility, public image, job challenge, and job satisfaction enter into the equation for pilot wages more than in other fields and pilot compensation more complicated than just a dollar total. Beyond the level of wages required to sustain a modern standard of living, it is almost impossible to quantify a need for additional pay. Like the CEO of a large corporation, additional pay is based on what is perceived by the company to stimulate respect from customers and interest in the services or products. This in turn is a reflection of the current value structure in society.

Your experiment is flawed due to sample bias because blue-collar workers are less aware of and less interested in the intangible forms of pay connected to professional work. To make a valid study you would need a representative cross-section from the overall population, preferably a cross section of college graduates with similar backgrounds to the people you wish to study. To simply find a group of blue collar workers who says pilots aren't paid well who would rather have simple objects instead of an airline career is misleading and is poor science. It's a valid topic but it requires better method.