Without being able to see their contracts, I would imagine Pike and Thompson have been around the block long enough to know that selling time isn't always the b

Without being able to see their contracts, I would imagine Pike and Thompson have been around the block long enough to know that selling time isn't always the best option. They may put in eight hours of work (although I believe both are basically retired at this point), but if that's not what they are selling, the time spent is moot. To illustrate further, as a farmer, I sell grain, not time. The job requires my time to be inputted, yes, but if I put in eight hours of work or two hours of work to produce the same amount of grain, I am getting paid the same either way. Developers can structure themselves similarly, which is to say selling something that is the product of time, not time itself, if they so choose. The average developer, especially those on the lower end of the pay scale, however, most commonly chooses to sell their time and their time alone. And when you are selling hours just like everyone else, price is going to converge within a relatively narrow range. An hour is an hour is an hour so it is difficult to differentiate if one hour is more valuable than another or how that hour translates into the output, and so it is priced accordingly.