You're expecting a jury that will probably not be making 6 figures to award an senior engineer $200k / year without death or injury being involved? I don't think they'll get that kind of settlement.
you see high paid professionals (i-bankers, brokers, lawyers, etc) win big awards all the time.
here's one about Merrill
Then, in the spring of 2004, an arbitration panel found Merrill had systemically discriminated against female brokers and awarded $2.2 million to a single employee.
http://www.businessweek.com/articles/2013-11-27/merrill-lync...
it's not exactly the same but you get the idea. Juries look at the possible damages and base the award of that. The higher the salary, the higher the potential damages.