Surprisingly not. Depending on the statistic you use, roughly 50-59% of people with masters degrees are considered “underemployed.” We all know the old joke about how your barista has a masters. The truth is that the supply of high level graduates often outstrips demand. The sciences are a clear case of this- equipment, labs, and funding for various high level specialized sciences aren’t everywhere. How many large hadron collider are there? How many telescopes and radio telescopes that can probe the depths of space or the smallest detail of matter? How many space stations do we have and how many scientists can conduct experiments on them at any time? Similar can be said of archeology, history, zoology, all manner of masters or doctorate level specialities.
Of course these specialists still have to pay bills wether they are uncovering new insights in the writing or art of legends of history or unraveling the mysteries of the cosmos; or managing a Kinkos. It turns out that when the options are to work for $30k or work for less or nothing- there isn’t so much of a shortage of highly educated people who will work for low wages.
That doesn’t mean this is ok, and specific to teachers it doesn’t mean that we shouldn’t pay them better or at least take care of them better- provide housing or add housing stipends, better fund classrooms and schools, hire more teachers ir assistants to lighten the load- all sorts of possibilities. But yeah- not so much a shortage of professionals who will work for $30k.
That doesn’t mean this is ok, and specific to teachers it doesn’t mean that we shouldn’t pay them better or at least take care of them better- provide housing or add housing stipends, better fund classrooms and schools, hire more teachers ir assistants to lighten the load- all sorts of possibilities. But yeah- not so much a shortage of professionals who will work for $30k.