[NikolaNovak]

I have witnessed plenty of cases where a lower-paid employee is performing a critical function that if not resolved has phenomenal cost.

e.g any number of administrators/co-ordinators/financial officers may get "paid less" than an IT support person; but a) the IT support person is explicitly being paid to support them and b) the value of actions they make is not 100% tied to their hourly rate - processing an invoice, writing up a contract, fulfilling some SLA, whatever.