There are a lot of disparities within the translation and interpreting industry, and one of those is the difference between language pairs/specializations that are fairly rare versus those that are fairly saturated.

Saturated markets have a few issues:

• Competition among translators and interpreters is often intense and very price-based.
• Clients, especially large clients, are often able to keep rates on the low end of the spectrum. For example, PRI’s The World recently ran a story on pay cuts to court interpreters in Nevada, and certified Spanish court interpreters here in Colorado make $35 an hour.
• Freelancers who work in saturated markets are often reluctant to share information with their colleagues; they are afraid to disclose who they work for or how much they charge, for fear of being undercut by someone else who charges less.
• Freelancers in saturated markets have less incentive to get new credentials or improve their skills, because they don’t feel that they can charge commensurately higher rates.
• The sheer number of people in the saturated market creates an “anyone can do it” mentality, and the market becomes even more saturated with people whose skill levels are not up to par. More.

See: Thoughts on Translation