Pay is determined by supply and demand, not by a cabal of fat cat plutocrats agreeing how much to dole out to different positions. The idea that people be paid "proportionally to the value they create" is an obsolete Marxist idea. Check out the "Marginal Revolution".
But, are these engineers being paid proportionally to the value they create? That is the acid test. The class system works both ways; people being held down are ingrained to believe that that is their station in life.