"In fact, looking at the salary tables, there actually isn’t a level of higher than 5 years." That seems like it explains the OP's experience right there. Why

"In fact, looking at the salary tables, there actually isn’t a level of higher than 5 years." That seems like it explains the OP's experience right there. Why would honestly senior devs even consider jobs well below their salary range? My shop is almost entirely very senior people with 10-20 years experience, but we pay accordingly.