In my experience, a web job can net up to 4x salary vs a much more difficult hardware engineering role. I know because I went form hardware to web and the average compensation is much higher. Additionally, web jobs tend to be less stressful.

Is this really true right now? I have been in hardware before, and found I was curious to try what else was out there, so I got into a business role. Turned out, that sucks worse in some ways, so I had been considering trying to transition back. Barring the challenges with this plan, I saw that hardware at least seemed to be free of the constant churn that seems inherent in software, meaning new languages every 3 years, constant industry change, and the age perception issue, where you aren't seen as valuable after so many years unless you're a superstar. I had no idea, however, that software paid so much better. Is this really true in general, across the board, or do you mean only for select areas?

But why?

I think, because of smartphones and smart gadgets, the demand for hardware and gadgets has reduced dramatically. A lot of gadget ideas can be built as an app. Plus, most businesses need websites or web apps now so there is much, much more demand in for web engineering.

You are right about phones. I saw this a lot over the past years myself. I started in hardware back in the 80's when it was all big components. Then, with smartphones, it became clear that most little pocket gadgets of the 90's were obsolete. However, doesn't someone still need to make the phones and computers of tomorrow? Aren't those people going to be paid well since there will be fewer of them? I'm not saying it's not true, it just seems odd that software would be compensated so much better than hardware. Does anyone else have any thoughts on this?