The only users of cobol left are large corporations - they can definitely pay more to programmers. Good software engineer can pick up Cobol skills in a couple of month, six month top. We are not talking about neuorsurgent.
Salient quote from the article: "the time before a new employee can stand on their own feet is 2–3 years"
Most neurosurgeons just follow textbook prescriptions. I don't think this is a good analogy.