I agree that the fault does lie largely with employers, but it's not just them. Jr Dev positions are there, but more often than not they are at small local comp

I agree that the fault does lie largely with employers, but it's not just them. Jr Dev positions are there, but more often than not they are at small local companies that likely aren't paying market rate (or at least their mico-local market rate). For example: there are lots of places in Birmingham (AL) with Jr dev positions, paid internships, etc.., but you can't expect to make > $65k out of the gates. Then again, small shops are the best place for a first dev job in my opinion. You get exposed to WAY more stuff than you would at larger more established places most of them time. There are downsides, but I personally think the most important thing for a first job is getting exposed to a lot of new stuff and learning to get comfortable in an unknown environment/stack quickly.