Two interesting factoids from ADTmag’s 2005 Salary Survey:
[Application Programmers] Programmers in mainframe and Unix shops make the most, topping $59,000 a year in base salary. By development language environment, programmers in CICS and COBOL shops fare best, drawing average salaries of almost $62,000 for CICS-based development and $59,000 for COBOL.
[System Programmers] Mainframe skills continue to be a strong suit for systems programmers, who earn an average of $71,100, outpacing their Unix counterparts by about $2,000. By development language environment, systems programmers in CICS and COBOL shops fare best, drawing average salaries of $72,100 and $70,200, respectively.
$59K to $70K per year for being a COBOL programmer? Whoa.
Oddly, it ties into my COBOL note from almost exactly a year ago.
COBOL always reminds me of my mother. She was a systems analyst and programmer before she died and was always talking talking about COBOL and mainframes.
Magic language.
I have recently become unemployed after being a mainframe COBOL programmer for 8 years. I have read all the stats about how much COBOL is still being used, yet I am trouble finding another job. What is the deal? Any thoughts/advice would be appreciated