Higher salary vs. happiness? Show me the money
Given the choice of a job with more hours and a higher salary or one with reasonable hours but less pay, many people opt for the cash, even if it means a compromise on happiness.
Researchers asked more than 2,600 survey participants to consider a variety of scenarios, including the choice between an $80,000 job with reasonable work hours and seven and a half hours of sleep each night, or a $140,000 job with long work hours and time for only six hours of sleep.
“We found that people make trade-offs between happiness and other things,” says Alex Rees-Jones, a doctoral student of economics at Cornell University. “For example, they explicitly told us in the free response sections that they would be happier one way, but their family would be happier if they took higher-paying options.”
Full story at Futurity.