Can You Put a Price on Employee Happiness?
A recent study from Princeton University has sought to put a price on happiness. Yes, in their study they have found out exactly how much your employees need to earn to be happy. Compensation and Reward professionals listen up. In their study, they discovered that the optimum level for happiness was $75,000 a year (about GBP 45,000 per annum). They found that the lower an individual’s salary fell below this figure, the unhappier that person will feel, but interestingly, no matter how much more than $75,000 a worker makes, they don’t report a higher degree of happiness. So, $75,000 is the magic salary figure for happiness.
However, another joint study by the University of Pennsylvania and the University of Michigan suggests that there is no financial ceiling to happiness in terms of salary earned. They basically found that the more you earn you happier you are.
You can see the results of their study in the graph below which plots GDP per capita against satisfaction and shows that both richer countries and richer people are happier.
In the second graph of results, they show that there is not a $75,000 a year plateau for salary induced happiness.
It seems therefore then that once an employee is earning $75,000 they can pretty much buy everything they need to be happy and have a satisfying lifestyle.
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