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Money doesn't necessarily equate to job satisfaction
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The main cause for unhappiness at work is related to how much money one makes. However, there are some factors beside money which could be more important when looking for job satisfaction. - photo by Matthew Jelalian
Enjoying the job is as important as the salary. Just ask billionaire Richard Branson.

Eighty percent of our lives are spent at work, Branson told BizJournal. Why should work be miserable? Some say that there are other factors that may be just as important, if not more important, than one's salary.

Noelle Hancock, a former journalist, wrote a piece in Esquire Magazine this week about how she left her $95,000 job in New York City for a $10 an hour job scooping ice cream in the Virgin Islands.

Perhaps there was something indulgent and Peter Pan-ish about this new lifestyle, wrote Hancock. But the truth is, I was happier scooping mint chocolate chip for $10 an hour than I was making almost six figures at my previous corporate job. It was calming to work with my hands. I met new people constantly, talking face-to-face instead of communicating via email and instant messaging. When I closed the shop at the end of the shift, my work was done and my time my own.

Despite having attended Yale and living the American dream in New York City, Hancock wasnt happy at work. She expressed that a high-paying corporate job is not for everyone and that there is more to life than a hefty salary.

Living abroad has exposed me to a different approach to life, one in which you're not expected to settle in one place and do one kind of job, wrote Hancock. Perhaps some of us are meant to move around every few years, change jobs and live many different micro lives.

Business Insider reported that it looks like wages might finally be on the rise. But a Pew Research Center survey in January found many Americans are still concerned about job opportunities as well as wage growth. As the economy improves, people tend to feel more comfortable with their job prospects but not as much as expected.

Deseret News reported on a recent study, High income improves evaluation of life but not emotional well-being, claiming that an annual salary of $75,000 maximizes the happiness of an employee, but over that amount diminishing returns set in.

According to CNN, the study is what inspired Gravity Payments CEO Dan Price to cut his $1 million salary so that all of his employees could make $70,000.

According to Psychology Today, wages are the No. 1 cause for unhappiness at work but job security, lack of social connections, the work itself and bullying are also causes for an unhappy employee.
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