In the US, there's probably a pretty significant delta between top SV big tech salaries and a lot of the rest. Of course, those companies probably exclude a lot of competent developers and other companies can offer other opportunities besides just salary that big tech can't (more interesting projects, less of a hiring gauntlet, smaller scale, etc.) But if someone is willing to and can get through the hiring gauntlet--and really cares about the comp--it's hard to compete.