$60K is very hard to believe. I wouldn't trust indeed.com for faculty salaries. For one thing, the variance is high between departments. Engineering gets paid

$60K is very hard to believe. I wouldn't trust indeed.com for faculty salaries. For one thing, the variance is high between departments. Engineering gets paid a lot more than history, for example. According to https://www.univstats.com/salary/university-of-arkansas/faculty/ https://www.univstats.com/salary/university-of-arkansas/facu..., assistant professor is $91K. The caveats still apply - some likely get a lot more, and some a lot less. Fortunately, it's a public university, so we can see actual salaries: https://app.powerbi.com/view?r=eyJrIjoiZGM3Yzg2YzMtNDY3YS00Nzk4LThiMDctNjhkNDVlYmE2YjM2IiwidCI6IjhjMWE4N2NiLTgwYjctNDEzZi05YWU4LTU1YzZhNTM3MDYwNCJ9 https://app.powerbi.com/view?r=eyJrIjoiZGM3Yzg2YzMtNDY3YS00N... Looking at some random assistant professors in relevant departments, I see: One who earns $113K Another who earns $94K Another who earns $96K. These are regular departments, (biochemistry, biology, etc). Not medical departments. I'm sure those ones get paid more (e.g. one I personally knew in Houston got $180K in a public university in Dallas). So mid $90's would be my guess. Then note that these are 9 month salaries, and the typical deal is they get up to a third more from grants (their "summer" salary). So total compensation for assistant professors would be about $120K. Faculty salaries are not that bad, as a rule. What's really bad is the number of years they spend trying to get a postdoc.