[hiAndrewQuinn]

Yes, exactly! One reason it's valuable to look at these numbers is because it makes you take a step back and say "Wait - I'm in what percentile?"

That naturally leads many people to ask whether making only $200,000 a year as a professor somewhere is really a price you're willing to pay, as opposed to making multiples of that as the smartest guy in the room in any number of private industries. Opportunity cost matters!

[ndriscoll]

If you're making multiples of $200k for being a smart guy, there's a decent chance you're doing something that a lot of people would be ethically uncomfortable with (HFT, ads/surveillance tech, etc.). Being happy with what you do in the world also matters, and $200k/yr is easily enough to support a family on a single income pretty much anywhere already.

[crinkly]

Bit more complicated here in the UK with salaries in academia. But in private sector I was earning 1.5x average mathematics professor salary before I even had a mathematics degree. And equity on top of that. Not the smartest guy in the room by far but the most useful.