[drac]

At least one of the problems, IME, is that salary ranges are rigidly determined by the employee tier.

The tiering system goes something like this: Software Engineer -> Lead -> Architect

Without advancing through the ranks, it is well nigh impossible to get reasonable increases in pay; so people (even those who may wish to write more code) strive to climb up the ladder.

Not saying it makes perfect sense to everyone, but there is some logic to making sure people climb up the ladder quickly (if they are capable) in large corporations.