HAPPY, HAPPY, HAPPY….Which will make you happier: a pay raise or a boss you like? A pay raise or an interesting job? John Helliwell and Haifang Huang at the University of British Columbia claim to know the answer:
Say you get a new boss and your trust in management goes up a bit at your job (say, up one point on a 10-point scale). That’s like getting a 36 percent pay raise, Helliwell and Huang calculate.
….Having a job that offers a lot of variety in projects, Helliwell and Huang found, is the equivalent of a 21 percent hike in pay.
Having a position that requires a high level of skill is the equivalent of a 19 percent raise.
And having enough time to finish your work is the equivalent of an 11 percent boost in pay.
Let’s see. I like the management at the Washington Monthly; I get to write about lots of different things; my job requires a fair amount of skill; and I get to work at my own pace. Put this all together and it means that the Monthly gets to pay me about half of what they’d have to if this were a lousy job and I got treated badly. Not bad, eh?
