The only users of cobol left are large corporations - they can definitely pay more to programmers. Good software engineer can pick up Cobol skills in a couple of month, six month top. We are not talking about neuorsurgent.
My impression from the article was that the barrier to entry for new hires was less the language and more the domain-specific knowledge of the industry and the institution.
Salient quote from the article: "the time before a new employee can stand on their own feet is 2–3 years"
