In web development the average wage for frontend work was lower because the skill level required was lower. You don't need a lot of knowledge to be effective at building websites with HTML/CSS/Photoshop and a sprinkling of javascript/PHP.
During the same time wages for people building frontends which needed more engineering knowledge (early mobiles, WinForms, those horrible old Java frontends) were higher because there were less people capable of doing the world.
In 2021 web development has moved on to the point that we're often building websites in fully features programming languages with heavyweight frameworks (React/Angular). They are paid well. You still see people who work with HTML/CSS/Photoshop and they are generally paid less.
See: Quality Assurance and the different between people who can test manually and who can automate their work.
During the same time wages for people building frontends which needed more engineering knowledge (early mobiles, WinForms, those horrible old Java frontends) were higher because there were less people capable of doing the world.
In 2021 web development has moved on to the point that we're often building websites in fully features programming languages with heavyweight frameworks (React/Angular). They are paid well. You still see people who work with HTML/CSS/Photoshop and they are generally paid less.
See: Quality Assurance and the different between people who can test manually and who can automate their work.