This is an unfortunate consequence of the stair step approach to salaries most big and medium sized companies use. A L4 person makes this much (or within that narrow band) and if you want more, you need to get promoted to L5, at which point you make a lot more rather than just a little more.

If we didn’t tie comp to a small number of discrete “levels” an instead made it a smoother slope, then people wouldn’t be so focused on levels and titles.