[bradleyjg]

This is generally the way things go. That it wasn’t true at some point is the anomaly.

The generalized version is that anything widely desirable about a job other than money acts to push down wages. For example, if a position is widely respected, well most people like to be respected so wages are going to be less than if it wasn’t widely respected. Similarly, if there’s a lot of people that enjoy spending time with children then jobs that involve spending a lot of time with children aren’t going to pay as well as they would have otherwise. See also, games programming.

[hallway_monitor]

After leading a team for about a year and a half, I see why managers get paid more. Simply, it's less fun, especially for someone who likes to solve hard technical problems.

I think I'm okay at leading a team but moving me to a staff engineer position would be better for me and the company and I think my leader knows this. The experience has been enlightening and I have a lot more respect for non-technical managers now.