Most of the people I know in embedded development are greybeards. There aren't a lot of younger people going into the field. The schools don't seem to be prepping a lot of people for these kinds of jobs. (not sure what we're going to do because a lot of these guys are in their 60s and about ready to retire)

> These skills take years to accumulate.

Indeed. Which is why the low pay is all the more puzzling, but I have theories: As mentioned above, most embedded devs are greybeards. They don't move around much. They probably aren't as familiar with the much higher pay people are getting at the FAANGs, etc. They aren't as likely to have a LinkedIn profile or if they do they don't spend much time there. As an older dev myself, it's not like I'm clamoring for higher pay: my mortgage payment is quite low compared to rent (and will be paid off completely next year), my cars are old but paid off, don't have any debt other than the soon-to-be-paid off mortgage. All this to say that older devs maybe don't make as much money because they're not as aware of market rates and they don't really feel like they need a lot more money if they're happy where they're at.