[bstewartnyc]

I somewhat agree with this.

It is mostly a question of making decisions that "scale".

If engineers are mostly deciding "how to build" something, then managers are mostly deciding "what to build".

Assuming managers are not just "schedule keepers", and are actually making decisions, then it makes sense for them to be paid more based on making those decisions correctly.

If the managers decisions on "what to build" are correct, and 12 months down the line a product is more successful because of that decision, their compensation can be much more than that of individual engineers.

Certainly there is much overlap between "what to build" and "how to build it", but in general it is the "business" role to decide what to build, and engineerings role to decide how to build it.