The pay is largely going to be set by demand. But also: The sector has been ramping up salaries since the mid aughts, and I've found different people have diffe

The pay is largely going to be set by demand. But also: The sector has been ramping up salaries since the mid aughts, and I've found different people have different ideas of what the inflection point was in technology where it become prestigious/highly paid. For me, I feel like things really heated up in the the 2010s. But there are others who I think would walk away from this industry if they got paid, adjusted for inflation, like it was 2015. As someone who cut their teeth in the wake of the dotcom crash, I look at the early 2010s as the halcyon days even tho pay got A LOT better - but I feel like that period struck a really good balance. If all you know is the white-hot market of 2019-2021 I suppose everything else looks like a massive downgrade. (Not implying any of this relates to your experience, just giving my 2 cents)