"Perl devs are probably 2x the price of a JS guy..."
Funny that here in France it is quite the contrary which leads me and others Perl dev friends accepting JS work as Perl5 and even more Perl6 work are harder and harder to find.
This is absolutely false - at least for senior guys.
Unfortunately (as I happen to be a relatively big fan of Perl5) the market for even "core" Perl developers (e.g. a core perl/module/framework developer with name recognition and solid track record) is less than half the going rate of the equivalent in Node.js for example. Perl unfortunately (as a hiring manager) seems very stratisfied too - there is a whole lot of exceptional talent, and a whole lot of horrible talent - and not a lot in the middle.
I don't know if there is really a market for "below average" Perl programmers these days like there is for JS or PHP - so entry level and other code janitor positions likely do pay more simply due to there being a lack of junior devs learning Perl these days. Those left taking those lower paying Perl jobs are likely not exactly the team of the Perl crop, much less programming crop.
That is the harsh reality of being a Perl shop these days, for better or worse. However the language is much stronger and much more modern than most on HN give it credit for. Properly written Modern Perl in 2017 is much different than the Perl you wrote as a 17 year old making $300 on his first CGI app. It may however be a case of too little too late.
I stand corrected - my statement is indeed not backed by concrete evidence, but my personal experience and is mostly related to job findings where some legacy Perl5 needs to be supported or amended.
Though, I'm more or less surprised that things are as you say in France.
If you want to check by yourself here is the popular french job board for web related stuff:
https://remixjobs.com
search JS or javascript: hundreds of results.
and then search Perl: 1 result.
