Summary of three ways to implement ranking in MySQL without using order by

drop database if exists emps;
create database emps;
use emps;

create table employees(
    empId int primary key, -- employee number gender char(1) NOT NULL, -- employee gender hire_date date NOT NULL -- employee joining date );
create table salaries(
    empId int primary key, 
    salary double -- employee salary);
    
INSERT INTO employees VALUES(10001,'M','1986-06-26');
INSERT INTO employees VALUES(10002,'F','1985-11-21');
INSERT INTO employees VALUES(10003,'M','1986-08-28');
INSERT INTO employees VALUES(10004,'M','1986-12-01');
INSERT INTO salaries VALUES(10001,88958);
INSERT INTO salaries VALUES(10002,72527);
INSERT INTO salaries VALUES(10003,43311);
INSERT INTO salaries VALUES(10004,74057);

select
	E.empId,E.gender,E.hire_date,S.salary
from
	employees E join salaries S 
on 
	E.empId = S.empId
where	
	S.salary=
	(
    select max(salary)from salaries 
    where 
        salary
        (select max(salary) from salaries)
    );
-- ---------------Query Results------------ --
+-------+--------+------------+--------+
| empId | gender | hire_date | salary |
+-------+--------+------------+--------+
| 10004 | M | 1986-12-01 | 74057 |
+-------+--------+------------+--------+

select
	E.empId,E.gender,E.hire_date,S.salary
from
	employees E join salaries S 
on 
	E.empId = S.empId
where S.salary=
	(
    select 
        s1.salary
    from 
        salaries s1 join salaries s2 
    on 
        s1.salary <= s2.salary
    group by 
        s1.salary              
  	having
  	 count(distinct s2.salary) = 2
    );
-- ---------------Query Results------------ --
+-------+--------+------------+--------+
| empId | gender | hire_date | salary |
+-------+--------+------------+--------+
| 10004 | M | 1986-12-01 | 74057 |
+-------+--------+------------+--------+

select
	E.empId,E.gender,E.hire_date,S.salary
from
	employees E join salaries S 
on
    S.empId =E.empId
where
    (select count(1) from salaries where salary>=S.salary)=2;
-- ---------------Query Results------------ --
+-------+--------+------------+--------+
| empId | gender | hire_date | salary |
+-------+--------+------------+--------+
| 10004 | M | 1986-12-01 | 74057 |
+-------+--------+------------+--------+