I have 10+ years of experience---17 actually, or more depending on how you count. I am sitting out the hiring market: instead I'm doing consulting, freelancing,

I have 10+ years of experience---17 actually, or more depending on how you count. I am sitting out the hiring market: instead I'm doing consulting, freelancing, and my own projects. The problem isn't a shortage of 10+ year developers. The problem is too little variance in developer salaries. I look at the salary ranges on StackOverflow and don't see any that are interesting to me. Compared to what I can make on my own, they don't come close. There is tremendous variance in developer productivity, and salaries don't keep up with it. I don't see the same problem with doctors, lawyers, accountants, or many other professions and trades, where your compensation can keep growing all your life. I think 10 years is about when many developers jump ship to management or a second career. I feel very lucky that I can continue doing the programming that I love. But if you want me to come back to full-time employment, it's going to have to be a salary that reflects 17 years of lessons learned, and the productivity, maturity, business sense, and technical judgment my clients are paying for. So I think you're right that it's not about new grads, but about proven senior people. That's exactly when the salaries plateau. So the people here saying "It's not a shortage if you're paying too little" are right too. There are new grads getting hired for $130k total comp, or even $200k. Offer me $300k plus remote and I'll probably take it. Offer me $400k and maybe I'll even move. Of course that sounds outrageous, but my point is it shouldn't. Not if you consider the difference in value senior people can provide.