4440driver,
Yup, you're right about pay. From what I've seen in AK since 1997 it has not really gone up. Generally lower end is about $20 an hour and seems to increase slightly based on experience on AK types of airplanes and one's willingness to live in the "bush". I'm making $24 an hour this summer in case you want to know. Pretty good company. If anything, wrenching can bes seen as a way to get one's foot in the door of a company that one is interested in flying for someday.
On the plus side, if you work for the right company, you can fly in the summer and wrench in the winter- I've done that several years.
Potential drawbacks include the possibility of being held in the hangar until everything is squared away, enough summer mechanics are in place, etc...
Generally from what I've seen, pilots make more here than mechanics. That's with the caveat that the pilot's duty day is generally longer- up to 14 hours in a 24 hour period.
Had medical/dental/401k at one job many moons ago, but that came with the condition of working night shift in the summer because the planes flew all day. Nights are a bummer. Did five summers of that and just had to get out of there.
I've got a killer resume for AK, but found that with my lack of multi/turbine time I was not in a very good spot for anything outside of AK flying wise. I do like wrenching though. I like knowing a bit about the airplanes, and it is a pretty good fallback when, like this summer, I did not want to take the flying jobs that were available up here.
Honestly, I do not really see myself really able to do much else in at least the near future besides AK stuff.
Not that I'm complaining, it is from what I've seen, some really great aviation, and great people involved in it for the most part.