Anyone else feeling frustrated by their salary?

You aren't allowed to complain until you win the Nobel prize. Otherwise, you won't have any leverage over the next generation. It's not coercive, you're free to leave at any time and work on whatever you want to work on/however much you want to work. If you don't do what they are doing though, you won't get another job. The more niche your job becomes, the more vague and nonsensical the rejection letters. Am I under-qualified? overqualified? Did I not show the PI/group enough deference? Did I not show the field enough deference? Or, just the normal reason: not enough papers. How do you publish these? They won't tell you. No, it's too complicated still and all your ideas are unpublishable garbage (until we need them), just do this next thing for us, and for sure you'll be a fifth author on our next masterpiece.

Don't be expected to be rewarded for taking a single risk until you have full tenure. Oh, the person/group you're working for turns out to not be compatible? Too bad, that time is measured against you. These grants are only for the freshest, luckiest faces.

You did your postdoc during a pandemic? Too bad, so sad. Here's basically a $25 gift card, and you can attend a "listening session" where you can voice your concerns. Oh, not concerns about labor protections or cost of living, and also we're not going to do anything about these things. We won't even write that stuff down. No, the only stuff that will get recorded in these sessions is stuff we might do something about later, if you somehow win the Nobel prize.

Well put, it is a sick cult. People are willing to do anything to be the first author. That sucks; that is not science. Most of the papers I read are trash, too.

Yeah, when I was finishing my PhD my advisor tried telling me that he didn't want to pay me during my last semester, because in his view I could just move back in with my parents and write. My parents are blue collar folks scraping just enough to get by, and I for sure don't work if I'm not getting paid. It all worked out in the end - I jumped to industry after doing a postdoc and my raise alone this year was about the same as my total stipend in grad school - but yes, academia is hell if you don't have wealthy family to fall back on.

*collar not color - was not raised by Smurfs :)

This is a really important point! I’ve actually had a few people DM me about training grants since I’ve mentioned it in a few random posts, so if you’re interested in being on a training grant, you should know that there are string attached. The complete document is here, but basically, you can’t just bail out after a year because you’re agreeing that your first year of funding will be “matched” by a second year of related work. So if you’re on a 2 year contract and have already done your two years, you should be good, but if you’ve been on a training grant for 18 months and decide to quit to go start a cat cafe, you still owe them 6 months of sciencing. Fortunately, I’m out of my repayment period entirely, but this is actually really important for people who might be considering leaving a postdoc early. Be aware of sneaky repayment agreements!

Just a caveat - this isn't true in the UK or spain

I second this. I know NIH postdocs who make in the $70ks and $80ks.

The environment matters a lot, too. I interviewed for and managed to get industry and government offers in the past year that offered six figure salaries, but had questionable environment and not much opportunity for independence. I chose to stay making $40k less because I have a great PI who funds my science (buys whatever I want) and I get to work on my own projects.

Money counts for a lot, and if you're chronically financially stressed then that's not sustainable. But making more money also can change a lot about your work environment.