but I don't think £27k is that awful because the job security and pension are really rare special commodities nowadays.
Firstly as others have pointed out these roles are no longer offering job for life security in the way they used to and a lot of people still assume. Secondly, the lovely pension is being steadily picked away at. A public sector worker in their twenties or thirties should not assume they will be getting the same size of payout when they retire as they would get if they retired now.
Depends where you live I guess. Where I live wages are low, as are house prices. £27k is a decent wage and plenty of skilled and responsible jobs are paid around that amount or less.
Of course there is a difference in cost of living and £27k will get you more in other areas. I live in an expensive area of the south, and I really struggled to buy a very modest 2 bedroom place earning significantly more than that.
I also can't think of other jobs that aren't also ridiculously underpaid that have the same sorts of responsibility and risks as a role like Fruits. When you compare it to other industries and take the view that human life is actually worth something it is very low paid. I think Fruits very modest request of £31k is low for what she does.
As comparison, I worked as a project manager in a large organisation. I managed five people, I managed projects worth modest amounts of money that could perhaps be argued to improve people's lives to some degree. If I made a mindboggling cock up the worst that would happen would be that it would cost the organisation a bit more money, some people would be mildly inconvenienced and possibly a bit embarrassed. I worked 9-5 with flexitime, a pretty good pension, and ok maternity. It could be stressful when deadlines were tight and crazily unreasonable, but if I asked the question "will anyone die?" The answer would always, without question be no. I earned £36k. I could have moved to another organisation in a similar role and easily expected to earn £40-50k.
If I compared the level of genuine risk to life and limb of that job with what Fruit does I find it extraordinary that people can argue that she deserves less money than people in the sort of job I did.
While we are here let's look at some other jobs:
Police constable earns £23k upon completion of initial training raising to £38k after 7 years
Train drivers start on £24k rising to £39k after training period
I could go on. I really do dispute that there are jobs outside the care sector (petty much all of which is underpaid) with similar levels of risk and responsibility that are paid similar amounts.