The short answer
You did everything asked of you, but the institution didn't hold up its end. That gap — between what you earned and what you got — is real and it costs you. The move now is to stop waiting for the system to correct itself and start building leverage outside it.
You're not imagining it. Research on pay fairness shows that when people feel the deal is broken — that their input doesn't match what they get back — it lands as a genuine injury, not just disappointment. You gave years and serious credentials. Feeling underpaid and disposable on top of that is a heavy load to carry. That feeling is telling you something true about your situation.
Here's the reframe: the system that promised you a path isn't the only judge of your value. Marcus Aurelius wrote about powerful figures — physicians, authority figures — who once seemed permanent and imposing, and are now gone. The institutions that looked so solid when you started your PhD are themselves changing, shrinking, struggling. Their contract offers don't define your worth. They reflect their own limits.
This week, pick one skill or area of expertise from your research and write a single plain-language paragraph about what you can do with it outside academia — consulting, industry, policy, writing. Just one paragraph. Don't overhaul your life. Just open one door a crack and see what's on the other side. That's the first move.