However, I was having this conversation with a senior manager of mine and he revealed the salary he was making he was around my experience. And it is almost similar to what I'm making now.. (I understand that the sample size is very low, some data around this would be really helpful)
How is this argument even right that back then people were earning less, when the correct argument should be that engineering salaries haven't increased that much from a decade ago?
I've been at my current job for a little less than a decade. I can say that my pay is pretty similar to when I started if you account for inflation, 1 promotion, and the slight tenure-based increase in profit sharing. Looking at glassdoor's salary estimator, I seem to be priced correctly.
This suggests that salaries might be roughly the same as a decade ago and that salaries may have gone down in the longer term. These are just anecdotal. I seem to remember the longterm trend was covered in an article. I have also heard that you need to job hop to really increase your compensation.
The bigger issue more broadly is that generally speaking, tech salaries have been growing steadily over the last decade while non-tech salaries have been mostly stagnant, so it often seems like tech workers make a huge amount now when effectively a lot of other people just aren't making as much as they should.
I keep seeing security gigs offering half of what was on offer for the same positions back then. Although I think a lot of it has to do with how much better automated software has become. You don't need anywhere near the level of skill that was required during infosec genesis. Now everybody thinks they are experts after they've read a book and downloaded metasploit.