[innocentoldguy]

@xte - I agree with you for the most part; however, I think there are some supply-and-demand considerations to be made. For example, companies who use esoteric or obsolete languages, where the workforce who knows that language inside and out is particularly small (a la Cobol programmers circa late 1990s), should expect to pay more. Where I live, because of the area being inundated with technology boot camps, there is an exorbitant number of JavaScript programmers. Since you can't breathe without huffing a JavaScript programmer, they tend to be paid less.

Also, some languages and applications require a higher degree of knowledge, training, and expertise than others. For example, I would expect to pay a programmer working in robotics more than I'd expect to pay a React or Angular developer.

Having grown up working in construction, I completely agree with your tool analogy though (and used the same analogy in another comment).

@gronne - About three times that, but close. ;)

[gronne]

If you adjust only for inflation then its about 82% cumulative 1992-2018.