> those salaries don't look too skewed compared to tech companies First, I think UT is a bit of an outlier: they are one of the top ranked departments in the c

> those salaries don't look too skewed compared to tech companies First, I think UT is a bit of an outlier: they are one of the top ranked departments in the country. Second: faculty members making $150k typically don't step into jobs in industry at $150k, they typically double or triple their salary. Generally, salaries in academia are much lower than what the academic could be making in industry. However, to make that in industry they'd have to compromise in a lot of ways: having a job in academia means you're trading your opportunity cost to not have a boss, work on what you want, mentor students, set your own hours, etc... Anecdotally (from my experience in academia) salaries for profs at average departments ranges from low 100s to high 100s, unless you move into more management-style roles (e.g., department chair). Naturally, this is higher for top places.