If you get a few clients that are extremely high-touch, hard to deal with, bordering on abusive, that will change your workflow completely. The pay range between people in the same role varies greatly due to the month-to-month volatility of spend/clients cancelling/etc. Also it just depends on the type/quality of accounts you’re assigned. Some people I know work so hard full time and still qualify for food stamps or need to work a second job. Some people are making 6 figures. All in the same role. Also there are many re-orgs which are marketed as good for the employees, but every re-org changes the bonus structure to the detriment of the employees’ paychecks that they rely on. Your paycheck can vary month to month extremely, which makes life/bills/plans/vacations/rent/mortgage/etc. difficult to plan.