These numbers have more to do with who is responding to the optional IEEE benefits survey (the IEEE target demographic) than it does actual salaries. There is

These numbers have more to do with who is responding to the optional IEEE benefits survey (the IEEE target demographic) than it does actual salaries. There is a lot that seems odd with these numbers and they do not appear to be not very representative as they are poorly sampled and undersampled. the very first chart shows slow steady growth and in the others we see tons of massive jumps - for instance they show median male salary jumping from 112k in 2018 to 156k in 2020. That would be an insane jump for an entire industry in 2 years (unless the sampling is poor as is the case here).