Just a small bit of nuance that I neglected to give before, I do live in Sweden and $43k gets you much further in Sweden than in the US.

It’s a above median income, which is about $38k. (Both numbers are rounded, in total im line 6k above median per year). But still very significantly below what I can get with my same degree in industry.

It’s a known thing in academia, the pay is not great. Even very high ranking professors, who essentially could have a CEO-like position in industry, still don’t crack six digits here.