For those doubting you, the going rate for embedded engineers out here in the Denver area where a lot of these SSD controllers are designed is ~$90k. Embedded engineers get peanuts for some reason.
If a line of code is written to run in a customer's browser, then that line of code may be deployed to millions, maybe billions, of customers. But, if an equivalent line of code goes in to firmware for some widget, then you're doing pretty good to get that line in to a million widgets at all, and it's going to take a lot longer too.
You'll still get paid peanuts for doing it.
I always felt that ISPs suffer a similar problem. Nobody cares if everything works as expected, but we'll get upset of it doesn't. However, there is hardly anything outside of what we take for granted they can do that we will actively appreciate. What could a embedded engineer working on SSDs do that will be noticed, appreciated and not taking for granted by customers?
If a software product takes off, that can happen incredibly quickly, and the new product is primarily composed of code. If a hardware product takes off, the change can't be nearly as fast as it's bound by manufacturing, and the code is just one component in each thing.
I happen to be working on firmware for a VOIP phone today - we'll end up making N million of these things, over some number of years. If I were working on an Android app with similar functionality, that app could conceivably go to N million people tomorrow, or 10N, or 100N...
Anyway, I don't think I have a particularly clear or concise (or even correct) argument here, but it's the only way I've been able to rationalise what we've observed.
Ultimately, whatever we write that goes into firmware is hidden from the customer. The customer pays a price per unit, and other hardware vendors are competing against your product. This competition keeps the overall cost low. Except at the very top level like Intel or Samsung, semiconductor manufacturers seem to be fighting one financial crisis after another.
Competition does not work like that in Software. The products (even in the same domain) are all too different from each other, so though they may be competitors, they are rarely in direct competition.
That simple.
"Why do we need source control? It's all there, right on my laptop. Source Depot is just a bunch of trouble." [rough quote from memory, maybe conflated from a couple of engineers]. I'm happy to report that things got better.
On the software side of Xbox the people were much better compensated, and we wrote lots of firmware, too. It was probably harder to be hired, though.
I've threatened to withhold paychecks from employees who have said this to me. The job isn't done till the code is checked in, building, and backed up.
The solution for this would be to open source such projects so engineers from many smaller companies can collaborate. These companies needs to understand that they will not be able to attract top talent and collaboration instead of competition is the way forward.
To make it look even worse, the GDP tripled but population only rose 50%, so if you adjusted wages against total economic growth instead of productivity median should be around $110,000. Median.
So yes, $90k is pretty much peanuts for how much money an embedded engineer would be on average making for their employer.