In reply to Peter Knight.

I don't disagree directly, when it comes to salary the 'WordPress dev' shingle doesn't do any favours (unless you are well known core contributor). But developers can pitch their value differently to get competitive rates. It doesn't resolve market wide perception, but it can help individuals get paid.

And now especially, you can do WordPress projects and use tools and frameworks that are associated with more pay such as Node.js & React, mobile development etc.

It is interesting though, you mention Node.js, but people in that ecosystem lament over similarly sounding issues: variable code quality, slow performance, iffy developers and general messiness. And for JS centric developers in general life is not that straightforward either because frameworks and best practices move at a ridiculous rate. It's not a given that React is going to sustain its current dominant status. Grass can't be that much greener.

Once the JSON API is feature complete it will be a nice stable platform to work with that people can't count on for years to come. No worrying about a disappearing 3rd party service with 0-12 months notice. No lock in with any particular framework or tool. I think that's a good basis for attracting new talent, but that's just speculation on my part.