I have an engineering degree from a prestigious university. My former employer was paying me about 42k for an R&D job in pharmaceuticals. I was on a small team, and it was common practice to not work full 40 hour weeks – the majority of the team was allowed to work the majority of their time from home, but I was one of a few who was required to be on site full time. I was working about 35 hour weeks because that appeared to be the expectation, but of course my hours were audited and I was fired without notice. It is what it is, I couldn't really fault the company since I wasn't working the full 40 hours I had promised them, but it also seemed ridiculous and deeply hypocritical to me. Especially since I was getting all of my work done and additionally volunteering for a lot of duties outside of the scope of my job description.
Well. With the experience I gained from that position, I've been offered a fully remote position with another company at over twice the salary I was making at my previous company. Honestly, getting fired was the best thing that could have happened to me and I encourage anyone who feels underpaid to start shopping around for new positions.