They get paid the same as junior programmers where I work. They are deemed as equal value to the company.
To be 100% honest a good developer should be able to take on all three roles. PM and BA are skills which should be built in as well along side other basics.
Most good developers that I know of don't communicate as well as BA or PM when it comes to interfacing with non-technical people.
NB: Not to say that these developers are bad communicators. They're less patient, they tend to have an "ideal" picture, and they work better with computers than a normal human being.
they're usually contractors these days to be honest.
I always sit in the middle between humans and machines and am quite happy getting my hands dirty with both sides. Communication and management is part of the job.
Your reply made my day. Typically HN-ers would reply with something out of the ballpark of Reality. This one is an honest, down to earth, reality reply.
Contractors, on the other hand, have to deal with Accounting department, BAs, PMs, etc and then ship something... :D
"a good developer should be able to take on all three roles"
I generally would agree with you but it is not that simple. A good BA or PM can do lot of dirty work that the programmers can be shielded from in order to focus on their core value: code/build the product. Some of those dirty tasks are:
1. dealing with difficult business users who keep changing their scope and requirements. Can you imagine if you had to develop the product while the scope keeps changing ? A good BA/PM would negotiate that for you and help stop scope creep.
2. Looking at the bigger picture. This includes ensuring all the connected project members are delivering, communication is in place, people are talking to each other and everyone is on the same page. No one enjoys doing this dirty work but it brings tremendous value to a project.
There are more like these but you get the idea. Yes there are BA/PMs that do not do their task well but incompetence is not retricted to a particular line of work, is it ?
To be 100% honest a good developer should be able to take on all three roles. PM and BA are skills which should be built in as well along side other basics.