To help answer the question about pay differences between managers and other employees, read this section. Managers have to have many skills that put them at the top of the pay scale, including problem-solving skills the average worker doesn't need.
Decision-Making Skills
Every manager is expected to make decisions, whether alone or as part of a team. Drawing on your decision-making skills
is often a process in which you must define a problem, analyze possible
solutions, and select the best outcome. As luck would have it, because
the same process is good for making personal decisions, we'll use a
personal example to demonstrate the process approach to decision making.
Consider the following scenario: You're upset because your midterm
grades are much lower than you'd hoped. To make matters worse, not only
are you in trouble academically, but also the other members of your
business-project team are annoyed because you're not pulling your
weight. Your lacrosse coach is very upset because you've missed too many
practices, and members of the mountain-biking club of which you're
supposed to be president are talking about impeaching you if you don't
show up at the next meeting. And your girlfriend says you're ignoring
her. (You can substitute "boyfriend" here, of course; we're just trying
to keep our exposition as simple as possible.)