Most jobs in VLSI industry are paid well.

More than the job categories, the pay would also depend on several other factors.

Following is my observation based on what I have seen

1. Your skills and experience level
1. If you are a fresher , your salary might depend on the college you are hired from (yes, based on tier-1/2/3 colleges pay differs)
2. If you are an experienced engineer, your pay will depend on your skills and capability. If you are joining a company new, you might have a chance to start earning high, but it will even out in few years
3. If you are a young or experienced engineer who goes beyond normal expectations and becomes the “go to” person , then you will have more chance of high pay
2. The company you work for
1. Yes some companies has higher pay scales than other companies. For example a company like Qualcomm/Intel/Nvidia is known to be paying more than a company like Broadcom/ARM/Samsung.
2. Generally VLSI product companies does have higher pay scales than consulting companies and IP/VIP companies.
3. Importance of your role
1. If you are playing an important and critical role in a project/company (e.g- interfacing some key customers, key architecture roles, you are contributing to several projects etc ) you might have a higher chance of earning more.
2. Certain startup companies also might pay more if the hiring is critical and you are found to be very important for company.
4. Job Categories
1. Some job categories like architecture/micro architecture of a system/chip will be highly paid, but it also takes several years of experience to get there and is more determined by your skills/capabilities
2. Certain job categories like circuit design or high speed designs with analog/mixed-signal design might be slightly highly paid as people with those skills might be less to find.
3. Most common categories like RTL design, Verification, Physical design are all almost equally paid and will vary only on experience levels
4. Some categories like layout or mask design or library cell development might also be done with people not so heavily experienced and might have comparable or slightly lower pay scale.
5. VLSI industry will also have jobs like product marketing, sales, business development and these will have earning capability based on how much business you win

Over a career spanning across multiple years, my learning is that your earning capability will be based on your skills and contributions to the company. Across job hopping, you might have a short term increased pay, but in most cases it will even out.

And of course, there will be exceptions and disparity with few people as in any other fields and you have to just ignore it.

For more read; Blogs - Verification Excellence