A friend I worked with at an FBO is now with American Airlines. They pay their senior captains an average of 400K/yr with an overall median of around 260K.
Maybe not legally but there’s more to it. It takes roughly the same amount of time for an airline pilot to reach the top tier as it does for a seagoing master.
I flew Part 135 with another guy from a wealthy family who paid for his own training from ground zero. His progress wasn’t slowed by having to jump through hoops working for various companies since he was self financed. The last time I saw him, he was flying 747’s for FedEx. It still took him over 10 years to get to that left seat with a commensurate salary.