Succeeding with a PhD

[Ideas]

I don't know much about careers for those who completed a doctorate, and I am curious. I hear regularly about PhD-holders not making much. I found this about the PhD-holders who didn't attend the top schools not being able to get a good position at a school:

In 2012, he conducted a review of the 3,709 political science professors who were then employed by Ph.D.-granting universities and found that just 11 schools had produced 50 percent of the total. Harvard, at the top of the list, was responsible for 239 of the professors. Purdue, on the other hand, was responsible for 10 of them.

Source: http://www.slate.com/articles/life/educa..._good.html

Do you think that the school matters much more for PhD compared to Masters' degrees? Perhaps the other 50% of PhD-holders are the ones bringing down the average salaries? Do they usually find employment at a university, just not a great one? Do some of them go work for a corporation in the end, and do they get paid more than a Masters' degree holder? Do you think the ones outside of academia, working at the lesser schools, are happy with their choice to finish their doctorate?