That is absolutely true, and in the original article there was a mention of folks trapped by US visa rules (leave your job, go back to your origin country). To

That is absolutely true, and in the original article there was a mention of folks trapped by US visa rules (leave your job, go back to your origin country). To address your question though, if I were mentoring Alice I would ask which is more important to her, money or happiness? I learned long ago that it is useless to argue which is more important but it instructive to know in a person which one is key. If she thinks happiness is more important, then the advice would be to interview elsewhere for a spot where she could be happy and ignore the salary if it is sufficient to her to live on. If she thinks money is more important, then the advice would be to focus her personal development toward being able to demand the salary that she wants to be paid. The bottom line is that its easier to put up with poor working conditions when it is simply a stepping stone toward a different (ideally less poor) place.