[Pmop]

I think it has to do with how much money some job will produce over the investment, and also OFC due to to supply/demand. How hard a job is, is kind of irrelevant for the compensation.

Due to the nature of SW, you can reach thousands of customers with little investment, so you may as well slap a fat margin on it. There are SW products associated with pretty much any economic activity these days, from textile machines to farm management (got job offers to work on products in these areas recently), so SWEs are in high demand. And if the market is not doing well, you can always strike on your own and try building something people will want to use and to pay for, for little investment (again).