100% agree with you. I’m 45. while I worked my way through college, I made something like 14K a year, which was enough to cover a room rental, and food. When I started graduate school 4 years later, I managed 26K. I finished my PhD in 2008 and graduated into recession where the federal minimum for postdoctoral fellows was around 35K. NIH funded positions and labs had to pay the minimum, and generally didn’t pay more than that. (When I computed the hours I was working vs my fixed salary, I was making $10 an hour, It’s what pushed me to leave my field of study.) Now I make $52K. My income has doubled in the past 20 years, but costs for housing, food, and healthcare have far outpaced the wage increases I’ve seen. I’m no better off today than when I was a graduate student.
100% agree with you. I’m 45. while I worked my way through college, I made something like 14K a year, which was enough to cover a room rental, and food. When I started graduate school 4 years later, I managed 26K. I finished my PhD in 2008 and graduated into recession where the federal minimum for postdoctoral fellows was around 35K. NIH funded positions and labs had to pay the minimum, and generally didn’t pay more than that. (When I computed the hours I was working vs my fixed salary, I was making $10 an hour, It’s what pushed me to leave my field of study.) Now I make $52K. My income has doubled in the past 20 years, but costs for housing, food, and healthcare have far outpaced the wage increases I’ve seen. I’m no better off today than when I was a graduate student.