As an ex-manager at a very large gaming company, I assure you, your manager doesn't typically make twice what you do unless you're at the very highest levels (t

As an ex-manager at a very large gaming company, I assure you, your manager doesn't typically make twice what you do unless you're at the very highest levels (the CTO is, of course, going to make quite a bit more than a mid-level engineering manager, esp. if they've gotten a lot of stock and have been around a while) or at a company with some seriously skewed engineering pay grades. I regularly managed people that made 20-30% more than I did. That was usually corrected within a raise-cycle or two, but it was by no means unusual. I don't think I ever had a direct report that was paid less than 75% of what I got, let alone 50%.