Quiet Magician
Superstar
Good questions
Generally the Engineers will see the better money bc they offer the programming skill but also the design exp and the ability to improve scalability and performance
I would say you are talking about a 8-15 year person- now thats a big gap but you also have to consider the highest paying firms are: Investment banks, hedge funds, asset management firms and technology companies ( generally speaking)
Wow that is a long time.
Any one of your programmers self taught man? I read an article yesterday saying something like nearly half of all New York's tech jobs are from people who don't have their degrees.