Pay as an COTA vs OTR

Hey everyone, I recently just graduated as a COTA student 🎉. Down the road, I have been considering pursuing my MSOT. To be honest, my primary motive to pursue a MSOT would be financial. Some reports state that OTRs can potentially make double what a COTA makes. However while talking to some of my supervisors during my clinicals, they mentioned that starting pay as a new grad is not what they expected it to be. Could that be different for me since I would already have experience working as an OT practitioner? Just wanted to hear a perspective from others in the OT community. Any feedback helps, thank you!!!

P.S I have decided to pursue a job in peds (either in the school setting or outpatient). I am currently studying for my NBCOT. I know different settings pay different. So if anyone has insight specifically for peds settings that would be helpful.