"I’m not trying to talk down to those professions; they’re all vital and should be well-paid, but a postdoctoral scientist has tons of training, and that should come with a boost in salary."

But.. That's part of the reason why scientists aren't paid very much. By and large, their work is not vital, and by most people's admissions much of "basic science" won't amount to much - but you never know till 10, 50, 100 years down the line. Now. Let's say one out of ten basic science projects becomes relevant (an overestimate, if you ask me as a PhD biologist)... And let's say a postdoc gets paid 60,000. Then the cost of that postdoc corrected for "likelihood of usefulness" is 600,000.

The other part is that we are willing to work for beans.

edit: I just realized I'm a postdoc and I'm not getting paid nearly close to 60k.