Engineers typically get paid less than developers. I used to joke back in the 90's and 00's (&still kind of do) that I'd quit and become a DBA (typically 2-3x salary).

I look around at the 6 figure web dev jobs and it honestly breaks my heart. I look at embedded and engineering roles (ones that interest me anyway) and it's rarely 6 figure. I just don't have the mental fortitude to deal with web dev monotony.

The only other time I got bad pay was game development.

So, my experience is, the more technical the job, the less you get paid (but more interesting/ demanding). Look at middle management, why do they get paid better? (Btw, I've been CTO too)