I bet most PIs also would love to accept a pay cut if they don't need to keep writing funding application to keep the lab afloat. A perfect example of such a po

I bet most PIs also would love to accept a pay cut if they don't need to keep writing funding application to keep the lab afloat. A perfect example of such a position is so-called "biologist" title in NIH. However, what I heard is that it is harder and harder to get it. Nowadays funding in biology is not secure enough for many PIs to offer anyone a stable staff scientist position unless your institute is willing to offer such one. What I heard is that even in NIH, a staff scientist without "biologist" title would possible be/have been cut because of the budget or retired PI. The later case is more devastated because nobody would be willing to hire considering the salary.