Career Advice & News Center

For many individuals, the point of getting into a career is for the money that comes with it. People use their jobs as a means of living, which is why some people tend to gravitate towards higher-paying career focuses, as they know it means they will be financially stable. However, the recent tight job market has left many employment-seekers having to settle for less than what they hoped, as many companies cut back on their compensation.

A new study from the Stanford Graduate School of Business has found that money makes people happy, especially when they're paid in hourly wages. Although this claim may seem like a given, the relationship between money and happiness is greater than many originally believed.

"If you are paid by the hour or account for your time on a timesheet, you begin to see the world in terms of money and in terms of economic evaluation," said Jeffrey Pfeffer, the Thomas D. Dee II Professor of Organizational Behavior at the Stanford Graduate School of Business. "To the extent that time becomes like money and money becomes more salient, the linkage between how much you earn and your happiness increases."

When participants who were on salary were notified of what their hourly wage would equate to, many individuals became just as satisfied as hourly workers, because they could calculate how much they were getting paid for doing a certain amount of work in an hour.

When it comes to wages, a degree may have something to do with how much an individual makes. According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, the average annual salary increases with the level of degree an employee holds. Additionally, the unemployment rate decreases as a worker's level of education attained increases.