I'm an adjunct professor who teaches five classes. I earn less than a pet-sitter

I'm an adjunct. No... adjuncting does not pay well. But anyone getting a degree with the expectation of being a professional academic should know this going in. I certainly did so I approached the job marketing accordingly.

I've never tried to be a tenure track professor. Instead, my approach -- for what it's worth -- is to make adjuncting my passion.

Instead of "being a professor," my profession is software engineer. As a result, being an English professor gets to be my hobby. I teach one course a semester and I love it. It allows me to be a member of an academic community, I can participate in talks/lectures/conferences, I can publish, and I can do all the other "academic" things I want to do and no one has ever told me I'm not qualified or made me feel unwelcome. Usually, the opposite is true. I get at least half-a-dozen invites every semester from my university and neighboring schools asking me to come lecture about my work. In addition, I can bring real-world experience and expertise into my classes every day, which my students appreciate.

It appears to me that someone with two law degrees, and sufficiently accomplished to teach law school and to be invited to conferences, could practice law. Not necessarily at a big firm with big pay, but paid enough that adjunct work would be a nice supplement to his income, not the bulk of it. The writer might have excellent reasons for doing what he does, but it's not as if he has a Ph.D. in Hittite.

As long as there is supply surplus on the labour market, of people willing to work for any wage, this will keep driving the wages down. I am indeed a little surprised adjuncts are still paid at all.

And pet-sitting and bagging groceries as a way of supplementing one's income? -- Being so bent on finding the least-paying part-time work, perhaps the angle should be, minimum wage enforcement should have more teeth?

So stop teaching and start pet sitting.