Comment by bdd8f1df777b

That's not true at all. (Excluding the factor of location), the compensation of a SWE depends not only the level, but also on tenure, on performance rating (and the history of rating), and on stock market fluctuations (whether the stock price was low or high when the stocks were granted).

One of the rumors is that the better compensated you are on your level, the more likely you are to be targeted for layoff, because it saves the eng cost the most.