The article is only looking at a few of the shops. The good ones pay their developers based on performance with some tied directly in to their group's PnL (top firms like Getco, Goldman [on their HFT platform only], Jump, etc) pay their experienced guys over $500k, with some of those guys on over $1MM. The Sergey A. case, where a guy makes over $1MM guaranteed, is not that uncommon. Of course, right out of school they pay low 6-figures, but after 4-5 years of proven track record, if the firm doesn't want to pay $300k+ in compensation, their competitors will. Then its the developer's fault for not making sure they are in the market and getting compensated market rate.