It's just how it is here, sadly - I wish we could change it, and so does my boss.

Nobody is here for the money; we get to work on pretty cool projects with quite a big user base (we're talking millions of users and billions of request per day) - No. 6 Alexa rank for the U.K, and one of 2 non-startups in the Top 20. We have a lot of authority and a relatively relaxed work environment