Yeah this is true iam a designer and I have to teach myself code and front-end integration to get respected in my company, now I design and I code , and my Manger changed my job title to U/Ux engineer.
Still unless u get into good b2c company it's same every.
I have 1.5 years of experience , I get paid same as developers, my Manger wrote beyond expectations in my appraisal.
I do freelancing too and I make in total more money that developers too . Actually I make more money than all junior developers in my team. 20 k more