Salary Reversals

I recently saw an advertisement for a full-time lectureship in the humanities, Ph.D. required, at a flagship state university; the salary would be $32,000, plus benefits, to teach a 4-4 load, half in general education.

This advertisement has made the rounds in e-mails and discussions, and as some observers have noted, perhaps praise should be offered to the university for not farming out the work to underpaid/overworked adjuncts, but rather creating a bona fide full-time position. There are lots of folks out there who would love to have a job with a salary/benefits like that. On the other hand, what year is this? A salary of $32,000 is roughly what one would have earned for an entry-level position at a state university in 1989.

Obviously the law of supply and demand works here, but how can faculty leaders, especially those in the humanities, keep the current economic malaise from undercutting salary advances from the past two decades? Or should we just be happy to have jobs and benefits?