[debacle]

Programmers outright refuse to organize. Lawyers, like any other professional organization, are highly organized which impacts rates.

You can start coding for hire right out of high school, if you've done the right prep work. It takes ~7 years before you can start practicing law.

I would argue that at least 50% of programmers out there are not 'highly-skilled professionals,' being neither highly skilled nor professional.

[cookiecaper]

This isn't relevant at the price points we're discussing. I've never known a 16-year-old to get paid $100/hr for his consulting services -- they are usually excited to take gigs at $15/hr, and the problem sets they encounter are usually tractable for their as-yet basic skill set. I can say as an individual who has made this progression from fresh-from-high-school freelancer to full-scale consultancy owner, you really hit a ceiling once you get around $50/hr. Unprofessional developers usually have significant difficulty crossing that threshold, at least in my local market, and there are not many absolutely incompetent developers floating around at higher rates. Most of our peers that can remain in that price range are at least respectably competent, even if we're still better than them.