Spiritually speaking: Is someone with a physics phD making 20$/hour underpaid?

They work for a government research lab, and have no hopes for raises/promotions in the next 15-20 years of work. They did 10 years of schooling after high-school (4 years undergrad, 2 years masters, 4 years phD) and they are in a ton of debt. Would you say that this person is underpaid? What other career opportunities do they have? The embarrassing thing is, his brother who is a Mcdonalds manager and only with a high-school diploma, earns more than he does as a physicist.