I wouldn't be at all surprised if the data are skewed.  A programmer in the bottom 25 percentile probably has a negative effect on your business.  There's no way programmer pay should be a normal distribution because bad programmers have such horrible effects.<p>But that's besides the point.  I provided a cited document with reasonable numbers for discussion.  The original article provides no data and does nothing to back up the claims made.  The stronger obligation here is on the author.  I don't have to disprove what he said, he has to prove himself right.  What you should be calling BS on is the article.  I still can't believe this thing isn't dead yet.