I read the same article and felt that conclusion the NYT was trying to portray was off/I took away a different perspective from the article. The first point being that a small town librarian one doesn't require a master's degree in the field. (Research libraries/big city libraries might differ) On paper she's overqualified to run a small town library and just because she has a degree doesn't mean that she should get paid more.

Another factor is that the average wage in the area is around 12/13 dollars. For someone to be paid twice the average private sector wage for the area is quite significant. Especially when this is a small town and money that is paid for the librarian comes out of their budget and means an reallocation of resources from elsewhere.

Tl;dr I'm not saying that the librarian should not get a pay raise to 25 an hour. What I am saying is that just b/c people are skeptical about wages doesn't mean that it's a direct correlation with them hating on college graduates/ect.