What each language actually pays, sourced from public job-board data, not a survey we ran ourselves.
| Language | Annual (avg) | Hourly (avg) | Range | Source |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| COBOL | $115,475 | $55.52 | $93,000 to $131,000 (25th to 75th percentile) | ZipRecruiter: COBOL Developer Salary (July 2026) |
| RPG | $93,366 | $44.89 | $83,500 to $107,000 (25th to 75th percentile) | ZipRecruiter: AS400 RPG Programmer Salary (July 2026) |
| PL/I | $111,000 | $53.38 | $47.12 to $60.58 per hour (25th to 75th percentile) | ZipRecruiter: Mainframe PL/I hourly pay (July 2026) |
| Assembly | $132,000 | $61.50 | $47 to $76 per hour | ZipRecruiter: Mainframe Assembler Jobs (May 2026) |
| PowerBuilder | $80,927 | $39.00 | Reported average, wide variance by region | Zippia: PowerBuilder Salary (2025) |
| Delphi | $57,500 | $27.64 | Reported average, wide variance by region and seniority | PayScale: Delphi Developer / Programmer Salary (2026) |
| ColdFusion | $92,783 | $44.61 | Reported average, wide variance by region and seniority | PayScale: ColdFusion Developer Salary (2026) |
| Fortran | $102,500 | $49.28 | $90,000 to $115,000 (25th to 75th percentile) | ZipRecruiter: Fortran Developer Salary (August 2026) |
US market, from public job-board aggregators (ZipRecruiter, PayScale, Zippia). These move constantly and vary heavily by region and seniority; treat as directional.