[isv]

I think in many cases the QA job is harder. The developer needs to implement the feature according to AC and cover known error conditions. The QA needs to test the feature according to AC and also throw everything under the sun at it to uncover unknown error conditions.

However it's been a sad reality from my experience in the industry that the average QA engineer is a less capable coder than the average developer. There could be many self-reinforcing reasons for that which includes lower pay. There are few things good developers wish for more than equal or superior QA engineers who make developers' job writing quality code much easier.