I do UX research at a small company. I report to our head of product so he doesn't really have much time to micro manage and doesn't realize my workload is relatively light.
That said, I'm pretty good at my job so it doesn't take me as long to do stuff as it may take others.
I started in market research - I had an academic background in polling so came in with some experience in survey design and statistical software / methods.
Still underpaid compared to other people with my experience level. Most people in my role with 10 years post grad are making $175k+ at tech companies. But the fact that I work from home and live in San Diego makes up for it.
Also a lot of my liberal arts classmates clean up. I'm probably the lowest paid of my friend group. So I'm all for liberal arts degrees haha.