Which kinda makes sense. The work of an SWE at big tech can bring in a ton of cash due to (almost) infinite scaling of software and (almost) zero marginal cost.

But as an SWE at a manufacturing company, how much can your work increase their revenue/profit? The bulk of their income is still coming from the widget/commodity they are producing.

I mostly agree, but for sake of honest discussion... Why are the mechanical/electrical engineers also not paid well at these companies? Even at these companies capable of achieving massive scale with new products they design. Think something like 3M, making billions of units of widgets and commodities.

Depending on their profit margins and the talent scarcity they do pay.

A seasoned cheme at oil and gas was easily pulling 300k + 2M pension + 10% 401k match

Lives on an oil rig doing to get that

It’s not marginal utility it’s supply vs demand. The reason SWEs can demand so much is because there are a lot of options to branch out solo or small company so companies need to pay competitive wages. The employees are therefore able to capture more of their value.

For chemical or mechanical engineers they need a lot of infrastructure to do work so employees are more locked to employers and wages are not as competitive. Employees are unable to capture their value without the employer therefore they get a smaller piece.

Also SV has an obsession with hiring the best while most large manufacturers consider heads interchangeable with only a few spots reserved for top talent.

So have not dealt with McKinsey specifically, but other MBA/Consultant types I feel like they treat software engineering like we are ditch diggers -- they just request things and expect it to magically happen.

So most of the requests are insipid, some are impossible, and they have no desire to spend effort to understand either.