To complain that programmers are not paid in proportion to their productivity is to imply that other professions are paid in proportion to their productivity. T

To complain that programmers are not paid in proportion to their productivity is to imply that other professions are paid in proportion to their productivity. That is very rarely the case. Sales, perhaps, is the only area where there is a clearly defined performance metric that drives compensation. In any other role, there are people making roughly the same salary with substantially different levels of performance.