Sure, $62.5k for a 10 month contract is $75k over 12 (62.5/10 == 75/12) but my point about purchasing power remains.
As the other commenter called out it's low considering to get to this salary at 15 years of experience you also have to have a master's degree. Master degree holders have a median salary $95k in the US so this is off the mark by a considerable amount.
They're signals with low leverage since everyone has to have them in their field, so you end up with lower nominal pay from the institutions that buy most of that labor.
Consider acceptance rate as a metric - education has one of the highest by this report, up there with public service:
maybe they are easy but "everyone has to have them" doesn't change the amount of time and money invested in getting them. The real compensation under that is stagnating with inflation. NC is particularly bad because state law forbids collective bargaining and they are at the whim of the legislature (which stalled a budget for 1000 days).
The signal of supply and demand the cost (and debt) of an advanced degree is not reflected in the marginal salary bump over bachelors degree given the rising costs of tuition. From same site you used 46.7% of public university masters degree completions used debt so basically half.
