I'm sorry, but I call bullshit. With salary bands imposing constraints, it's not even possible for you to have made a third of what someone doing "the same job" made.
You can absolutely get paid that much more. Companies make exceptions all the time and justify two people doing the same job by paying more if someone is more experienced even if the technical skills performed and responsibilities by both people are equal. Instead of being rewarded for working twice the hours to learn something faster due to whatever reason someone can still be paid more for basically accomplishing the same amount of progress in their career but taking more time to do it.
Trust me there are all kinds of reasons you can get paid three times more.