[jwillgoesfast]

I thought the same thing (with a gasp as a CTO myself :))

But I'm going to assume this article references companies where the Technology department is more of a cost center than primary operations.

For example a SaaS company that basically just has sales/marketing and technology/operations, the CTO is also acting as the COO, so I think you could attribute the COO salary to that of the CTO in a SaaS or high-tech startup.

[ttrreeww]

Developers/CTO tend not to ask for high salaries. Hence they get paid less.

(Then they broke and go insane from the perceived injustice, see that other article recently...)

[obviouslygreen]

Thanks for that explanation. I was wondering where my future was heading.