I don't know about the pay issue, just wanted to say that I think its a good idea to always be able to do a little of the other. A Modeler rigs and animates to understand what will be needed from there model as performance. A animater does better I think when they study shape and mass through modeling, and how it relatest to the motion they see.

I'm not saying don't specalise or even getting in to the merrits as far as job's. I'm just saying I think you will be worth more if you don't ever compleatly specalise in just one thing.