@statecollegekid A PhD is not a magical salary ticket. Any advantage it offers in industry will be slim if it even exists at all.
In terms of academia and research, it’s very case by case but generally you’re cheap labor for your advisor. People typically go for a PhD because they love the research topic or want to be a professor, not the journey on the way.
Absolutely an option, but one with similar pay to your offer now and a smaller job market than software engineering.