I meant the engineer to manager salary ratio is worse than it is in the US - managers make nearly twice the money for a given level of experience.

Afaik the gap is not as bad in the US, but I may be wrong?

Engineers turned managers would actually be fine, but we're talking traditionally educated managers who are often hired separately/brought in from outside.

Needless to say, they're not all that good, especially with modern startups/software businesses. Which plays a part in making Europe suck at them.