I live in Madison WI. 200K is C-suite territory around here for a mid-sized company. An exec at one of the huge insurance companies or biotech companies make more but that not typical. We have an Amazon affiliate here and mid-level managers make around $80-100K I think. I highly doubt their Chief Architects make more than 200K. 200K for mid-level management in the Midwest (outside Chicago) is unrealistic for sure.

Well, that's bizarre then because the place I was in was a very depressed salary zone and a company with a (well deserved) reputation for underpaying even for their salary zone. And with any managers I've discussed this with, while never disclosing their salaries to me, have never been surprised.

Anyone care to explain the down vote here? I worked at a large company in the midwest (very low pay compared to more populated areas) and a manager of managers (of workers, i.e. just 1 step above team manager) was making $240k/yr. That was 10 years ago. I doubt compensation has gone down.