I know a dev fresh out of college who became proficient in COBOL, got a govt job offer, and now is working as a lifeguard because places that hire COBOL programmers take forever to process their paperwork. Presumably he'll start his real job in late summer when they get their act together.
I don't know if I would call it "atrociously" bad rates but a quick scan of Cobol listings on Indeed somewhere between $90K and $110K. I'm sure there are outliers on both sides.
Honestly I feel the rates for all software devs have gone down from a year ago which I am sure has something to do with the massive layoffs from the big companies.