Any data to back that up? Really curious.

Conductors average $62k/year: https://bizfluent.com/info-12099370-salary-new-york-city-tra...

It's a decent middle class job.

An physics postdoc should pull in 40-60k (mean 49k) without an NYC CoL so I'm not sure subway conductor is better. Adjunct salaries can be disgustingly low but that's mostly in the humanities AFAIK.

>40-60k

>Might

My friend got under $40K as a physics postdoc in TX, my partner got around $50K as a math tenure-track in midwest, and those are the lucky academics that could find these positions.

You can look up salaries at many public institutions. The trend is pretty sad.

Some people might get a lot of money by winning the lottery, doesn't mean it's a viable career choice.

Disclaimer: I jumped ship, and still might suffer a bit from the sour grapes syndrome - but not because the salaries in academia very any good.

What is CoL?

Cost of Living, I imagine.

The benefits are really good too.

Starvation wages are the norm in the academic world.

Post-docs, and adjunct professors make O($30k), which is less than what a subway conductor makes, presumably.