There is a balance between number of available jobs and the pay. Go is the top paying job but you may find yourself being unemployed for awhile or stuck at a job you don't want looking for Go jobs.
Ruby may pay more but once you get to the higher end of the scale, you'll find many fewer jobs paying the amount you want.
EDIT:
In 2008, after being at one company way too long, I was what would be considered a top C developer and there was a company offering me $20K more than I was a making. But I saw the pickings were slim. There were more jobs paying the same amount for “Enterprise C# developers”. But I wasn’t qualified for them. I took a job paying only $7K more than I was making as a high entry level C# developer.
10 years later, there are no jobs in my local market paying $65K more than I was making in 2008 for C or C++ developers. There are some paying C# developers that amount (I have one).
I’m not bragging. According to all of the data I can gather, I’m making the median for my market for a “.Net Architect”.
That seems totally reasonable (and I don’t see your sharing some experience as bragging).
I guess my point is that high salaries aren’t limited to .NET and Java jobs. I guess I’d also challenge the idea that a Ruby job paying $100k+ doesn’t “pay well” (outside of SV anyway). Fast food doesn’t pay well. Working in the higher levels of tech absolutely does. My very first job was working the drive thru at a Taco Bell, and it still blows my mind when I think about how much I make now... (also not bragging, just trying to add some perspective).
It’s not just about pay. For instance, I could go into management. There are a lot of reason I don’t want to. But one reason is that managers seem to get “stuck”. It’s not as easy to leave because there aren’t as many jobs for managers and if you are forced to leave, it takes longer to get a job. I can have another C#/Java/NodeJS job within two weeks (if I was qualified).
Ruby may pay more but once you get to the higher end of the scale, you'll find many fewer jobs paying the amount you want.
EDIT:
In 2008, after being at one company way too long, I was what would be considered a top C developer and there was a company offering me $20K more than I was a making. But I saw the pickings were slim. There were more jobs paying the same amount for “Enterprise C# developers”. But I wasn’t qualified for them. I took a job paying only $7K more than I was making as a high entry level C# developer.
10 years later, there are no jobs in my local market paying $65K more than I was making in 2008 for C or C++ developers. There are some paying C# developers that amount (I have one).
I’m not bragging. According to all of the data I can gather, I’m making the median for my market for a “.Net Architect”.