It does not all come out in the wash. The things you build operate on a global stage, and produce value at an astronomical rate. The value of your work has no relationship whatever to your cost of living expenses, compensation is only pinned to that because if it were actually based on your productivity or the value of their work then when your value doubles you might ask for a 5% raise or something insane like that. It was decided early in the tech industries career that those improvements in value belong only to the executive class. Early wage-fixing, despite being prosecuted and convicted in court years later, set the stage for the whole industry across the world.