I'll even add that engineers should understand the value they bring to the company and adjust their concept of fair not just against their peers but against what the company is earning from their labor.
That isn't how salaries work. If there are many people who are willing to do the work at a given salary, it doesn't matter if the company earns 5x from that labor.
Supply and demand are obviously not the only factors, but they are very important and must be considered when looking at compensation for employment.
This is one of those things that sounds reasonable but is impossible to compute. Does the company earn more from the developer who makes the product, or the infra engineer who keeps it online? Well, without either they're not making anything...
Also, if the company makes a bit less money this year vs last year, are you willing to take a pay cut?
It might be impossible to compute, but we still want to compute it.
Or rather, get some agreement. I would say not only it is impossible to compute, the question of relative human pay for different types of work is a meaningless question, like asking, what is more important on a car, tires or engine?
