When our lizard brains look at charts, we're conditioned to check how relatively apart the lines are. By removing the zero scale, we're diminishing the lack of the absolute proportions of the salary scales. 8% doesn't seem like much, but 10k seems like a whole lot.
Also, this is a sensationalist article. They did not get into their methodologies, or whether their data points were actually representative of the industry. Somebody getting paid by the column inch found an easy article to write.
It's more exaggerated.
When our lizard brains look at charts, we're conditioned to check how relatively apart the lines are. By removing the zero scale, we're diminishing the lack of the absolute proportions of the salary scales. 8% doesn't seem like much, but 10k seems like a whole lot.
Also, this is a sensationalist article. They did not get into their methodologies, or whether their data points were actually representative of the industry. Somebody getting paid by the column inch found an easy article to write.