Really? I've always felt underpaid. Most business owners don't understand software or deadlines and me (and my developer co-workers) have always had to suffer as a result of this by working insane hours for weeks at a time to get things done.
But keep thinking this way. It will only help me when I need to hire developers for my own business.
I think the sentence before the one you quoted clears things up:
>> Many of us survive by Google searching, using stackoverflow and better documented frameworks. And, there still aren't enough of us. Many of us feel we are overpaid, but most would never admit it.
If you're shipping real software for real businesses that weaves a half-dozen technologies together in a way that none of the business guys knew was even possible, and you proposed and executed on the idea.
If you're in a large corporation working 40 hours a week, always clocking out at five, and there are no consequences for dates slipping, then yeah, I could maybe understand feeling overpaid.
But if I'm building the systems that make the business? The business could not operate without this software? About to make 5 salaried employees 1.4x productive? Yes, I'll charge a lot, and yes, I'm worth every penny.
I'm talking about guilt. I have done this for many years now and I see people that work harder than I do each day with more skill to make much less salarywise. And it isn't just me.
I think a lot of what we get paid for is the ability to adapt and endure not knowing how to do what we do when it changes all the time.
BTW- those running their own business often are in the lower income bracket, which is why I haven't made that jump yet. More power to ya.