The Developer Pay Paradox: Are Junior Devs, Staff Engineers and Most Developers Over- or Under-paid?

Short summary

Developer compensation debates fail because they ignore labor market differences. A junior web developer earns more than a medic or roofer not due to work difficulty but because software has infinite leverage—one build deploys to millions globally. The real question isn't whether developers are overpaid, but overpaid compared to what, in what context, and under which business model.

• •Developer pay reflects leverage and scalability, not effort or nobility
• •Different developer roles operate in distinct labor markets with different economics
• •Labor markets reward proximity to revenue and business margin, not physical difficulty

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