The pay gap is real, and a huge reason why perfectly good software folk (and scientists, data specialists, etc.) move out of academia and into industry. I have

The pay gap is real, and a huge reason why perfectly good software folk (and scientists, data specialists, etc.) move out of academia and into industry. I have an industry job with good pay with a side of academic work stemming from my PhD. My industry income is literally more than 2x the salary of my academic PI, who holds a senior academic post. My pay, which is probably around the median of most HN readers, is slightly more than the top peg of the academic pay scale in my area - i.e. University senior leadership team. So I do the academic work because I love doing the academic work. I cannot afford to take a full-time academic job, although it's been offered. I am baffled as to why academic institutions aren't failing to recruit. If they were businesses offering half the going rate, they'd get third-rate engineers, if they had any applications at all. Instead, there seems to be a long queue for academic tenure - and even for non-tenured positions. The only competitive advantage I can see is the sense of academic 'freedom' that these positions confer. But - it's not freedom. My academic colleagues spend hours each week chasing funding, filling in grant requests, attending meetings. Their teaching load is allocated to them without choice. They're in the office 9-5 same as everyone else. Academic freedom is anything but. I am lucky that for the research I do, mostly behind a laptop, my industry pay lets me afford the things I need to do it - cloud services, international travel, software licenses, article processing fees. I can 'do science' the way I want to without begging anyone for cash or going to grants committees. And I'm hoping this brand of 'citizen science' becomes the norm, because University-led research is going to get harder and harder the more the gap between industry and academic pay widens.