Depends, in some top IT MNCs a tech specialist can be paid much higher than even Directors and VPs. It is not uncommon to hear of specialists getting paid > US$1 million esp. among companies doing cutting edge software development.

Only trapped behind time bureaucratic local companies / gov organizations have this ridiculous idea that the more people you manage the more pay you get and keep forcing good techies to play office politics to be a "manager". In many progressive companies technical tracks run parallel to management track all the way up to C-suite.