Eh, I have an acquaintance from grad school who has a TT job at a very small (~2,300 students across two separate campuses) state university in the northeast who makes just under ~$50k.
The only places I know of paying THAT far below the median these days are SLACs or small state schools.
My point was that from a sheer numbers perspective, there aren't <enough> faculty positions at those types of schools to drag the mean/median salary around much.
But yeah, some of these numbers are atrocious. I think I'm pretty good at what I do, but my starting salary should not be double or triple what some people are getting paid when I am 2-3 years out of post-doc. Or perhaps I should say...people should not be making 1/2 to 1/3 what I do.
35k is quite a bit less than I pay my bachelor's level technician and well below the minimum for an NIH post-doc. Why anyone would take that job is beyond me. Just string together post-docs until you are able to find something better.