They should be underpaid (I think they should be paid even less), since they earn money from the government and don't facilitate any trade or provide value to end-users. A lot of them think their job is to weed students out instead of educating them. If you read through published research you can see how they stroke their own egos for their useless discoveries. There is zero market feedback for their work so the entire system becomes a circle jerk and full of suck ups.
The people building houses, ensure sanitation systems work, plan logistics to get food to supermarkets etc. should earn triple the amount academics earn.