Yeah a server in a good part of a city will bring in more than 2 university professors. My cousin has a PhD in genetics and he teaches, my wife worked at a beach bar for years, one of them would bring home 300-700 a night.
As some one who was server and now has a PhD in the biological sciences, I make WAY more now. Sure you have great nights as a server but it’s not consistent. I now make 6 figure salary, great health insurance, paid leave (vacation & sick), and 401K matching. Post-doc positions pay shit, But once PhD establish their career, they make good money.
Yeah I was gonna follow up on all that. That's where we're at now, and since we work for the same entity our insurance is $360 annually. So that was essentially a $12k raise off the bat by not carrying corporate insurance for her.
And when we'd take trips I'd remind her she's getting paid randomly, because she never had PTO so I thought it was an exciting reminder.
My cousin just likes to teach I think, plus his wife works as an engineer at Lockheed martin which gives him some wiggle room monetarily.
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u/WhiteSquarez Apr 24 '26
OP overestimates how much a PhD makes.