Until there are no more "seniors"...

More money for me until I retire - well actually I’m past the point where I chase more money - and then after that - it’s not my monkey and not my circus.

Again HN bubble thinking. Most developers in the US are working at banks, airlines, insurance companies, etc in second tier cities - in the “enterprise” and are not making “$400K”. Most developers will never in their career see more than $175K inflation adjusted and I really haven’t seen comp on the top end increase in nominal terms in a decade [1] for enterprise devs.

That leads to my second point, in second tier cities, you see comp go from around $80K —> $115K -> $150K —> $175K, junior -> mid (pull well defined tickets off a board) -> Senior (leads larger initiatives) -> Senior+.

For instance look at what Delta airlines pays based on Atlanta.

https://www.levels.fyi/companies/delta-air-lines/salaries

Why hire a junior at $80K when you can poach a former junior now mid level ticket taker for $115K?

[1] after pivoting slightly to cloud + app dev customer facing/hands on keyboard consulting, I’m at a new plateau that’s higher.