[Grollicus]

I think there's a cultural difference. Developers don't seem to be trusted as much here, which means software development isn't that much of a difficult job which would merit higher pay. The "meat" of the work - architecture, design etc. doesn't seem to be done by software developers so much as by specialized roles, often people who don't or almost don't code. These roles are paid comparably better, but if you lump all the web devs and people implementing business logic into the same category you'll get lower wages on average.

[raxxorrax]

That might indeed be true, but it can probably be detrimental to the software industry as a whole. I think at least basic coding experience is needed to plan architecture and design maintainable software to start with. Especially for getting experience for the viability of available solutions.

I have seen more software projects fail because of over-engineering for alleged maintainability, extensibility and a too generic design. Some would say that violates KISS. Many have shifted to more iterative development, which doesn't exclude the need for a solid architecture and extendable software, but it can improve time to an MVP. Quality can suffer, but you also gain experience.

Business logic can be as complex as you want. In fact one of the highest paid field resolves around optimizations in this particular field. SAP is an example here but there are others. "Cubing" data on your normal business data server isn't trivial, but allows to answer questions about trends management is very interested in and they have all the money bags.

Still, developers aren't payed that badly to be honest and you have options to reduce your workload, so that you don't end up with 60h work weeks or regular crunch. Projects might take as long as some unrelated airports in some setups I guess. If you code in a quiet smaller city, you can kiss 6 figures goodbye of course, but in many cases you are the best paid person in the room.