Well, I wouldn't say salaries "suck" outside of well-known tech centers like SF/Bay Area and NYC. They aren't great, though. Even in the Bay Area, at least, the salaries of engineers still pale in comparison to the salaries of managers and executives.
Maybe not suck as compared to a lot of jobs, but the problem with software development seems to be that salary growth rises rapidly up to a plateau and then basically stops. The opportunities for salary growth past a certain point require risk-taking such as starting a company, consulting in some very specific niche, or what have you. It's still better than the lack of wage growth in other fields, I'm sure, it's just not something that was explained to me AT ALL when I started down this long road many years ago.
Absolutely. Even the so-called "parallel track" technical equivalents to management generally have a lower pay scale and smaller bonus pool. In terms of career development and growth it's almost always better to be on the non-technical career path once you're at Lead Engineer or higher. Even director-level people on the technical side of the tree are generally viewed as (relatively) more expendable and lower-status than their equivalents on the non-technical track.
> Even in the Bay Area, at least, the salaries of engineers still pale in comparison to the salaries of managers and executives.
Depends on where you work. If you work at an actual technology company that "gets it", they'll have parallel management and individual contributor tracks where you can make as much as a director-level person as an IC, or more.
Emphasis on "can make" is due in this case. It's still a different dynamic with respect to status and a different pay scale in general (that is to say, exceptions of course exist).
