I’m looking for some item to make the choice easier. I was hoping I’d get placed in a higher pay bracket for the university job to make it the clearer choice, but it sounds I’m probably being placed in the lower one where I’ll probably be out-earning that after my 6 month review here.

"I'm sorry, I can't afford to take your position."

Done.

Full stop.

They wanted my wife to teach down in San Diego. She would have had to give up a couple days of being on call (as in, "miss the births of clients if they happened while she was down there"). They were going to put her up in a hotel and all that shit but when it came time to pay, they were all "we can only afford to pay you as an entry level person because you have no academic credentials but boy howdy we sure would like to pay you more eventually!"

My wife pointed out that she didn't seek the job - they called her up. And she said that while she wanted to help teach bright new doctors, the amount they were offering was wholly inadequate for the opportunity cost.

The person who offered her the job was butt-hurt. Because obviously my wife isn't seriously interested in the True Love Mission of education. But he took his butt-hurt to the administration who completely disregarded my wife's experience, crawled up in their ivory tower and pissed him off so much that he quit.

Because at the end of the day, the guy hiring you wants you for the job but the amount of money being offered is almost certainly out of his hands. And if you say "I'd take this gig except for the fact that I have to eat" you aren't making it about the gig.

PROTIP - nobody with half a clue says "I sure wish I could find a job that gives me more responsibility, more work and less pay."