Ruby in particular is hot right now and they're fetching higher salaries relative to other OS languages, you're correct about that. I clumped them all together

Ruby in particular is hot right now and they're fetching higher salaries relative to other OS languages, you're correct about that. I clumped them all together in my query, and PHP (and Java to a lesser extent) pulled the average down. Also, notice that I didn't specify junior developers on the salary scale - they're all over the place in terms of salary. Government contract work is always the exception in any industry. I think that's a given.