The study, published by Professor Eduardo P\u00e9rez Asenjo of UC3M\u2019s Economics Department, shows that relative earnings affect our happiness and our job performance. Summing up: if the people with whom I compare myself earn more than I do, I will be unhappier and I will work more. \u201cThis confirms the hypothesis of what I perceived, but not the way I would like things to be,\u201d the author of the study comments. \u201cI would find it healthier not to compare what we earn to what others earn and I think it would be \u2018better\u2019 if these things didn\u2019t affect our happiness,\u201d<\/strong> he states.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n In his analysis, he found that if an individual\u2019s earnings are less than those of her\/his peers, s\/he will work more hours. What causes this effect? \u201cThe most likely explanation lies in social comparisons, although it could also be due to the idea that if those around me earn more than I do, it might indicate that if I work hard I will end up earning as much as they do,\u201d explains Professor P\u00e9rez Asenjo, who also works at the Banco de Espa\u00f1a (the National Bank of Spain). The explanation derived from empirical analysis is the first one. \u201cTherefore, the effect of others\u2019 earnings on my happiness is negative, because I compare myself to them and it makes me unhappy to earn less than them<\/strong>; so I work more hours so that I can earn the same as or more than them,\u201d he maintains.<\/p>\n This finding can be applied to labor management or to human resource management in companies. \u201cIt might be a relevant criterion to keep in mind, when setting salaries, that an employee is concerned not only with what s\/he earns, but also with what those around her\/him earn,\u201d comments the researcher, whose perception is that a happy worker is much more productive than an unhappy one. \u201cMy personal opinion is that employees\u2019 happiness is not really taken into account in work environments, from the company\u2019s perspective,\u201d he concludes.<\/p>\n This line of research presents many challenges and aspects that can be delved into further: How are peer groups formed? Do the effects of relative income on happiness vary with the level of income? Or with age? This researcher\u2019s hypothesis, which is still to be tested, is that, paradoxically, the richer you are, the more important it is to compare yourselves with others and to do better than them. \u201cIf the absolute quantity of money one earns were the only thing that mattered, at a certain very high level, the only thing left would be to stop working, but that is not what happens and I think one of the reasons for this is social comparisons\u201d, he speculates.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/blockquote>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" From the Universidad Carlos III de Madrid press release via ScienceDaily: One of the keys to happiness at work is earning a lot of money, but what is equally important,… Read more »<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[5,8],"tags":[87,58,143,12,102],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/therapytoronto.ca\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7019"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/therapytoronto.ca\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/therapytoronto.ca\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/therapytoronto.ca\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/therapytoronto.ca\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=7019"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/therapytoronto.ca\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7019\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":7089,"href":"https:\/\/therapytoronto.ca\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7019\/revisions\/7089"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/therapytoronto.ca\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7019"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/therapytoronto.ca\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7019"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/therapytoronto.ca\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7019"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"Happy](\"http:\/\/www.therapytoronto.ca\/images\/blogpics\/HappyWorkplace.jpg\")
One of the keys to happiness at work is earning a lot of money, but what is equally important, if not more important, is that our earnings not be inferior to those of our peers<\/strong>, that is, of the colleaugues we compare ourselves to. This is revealed by a study carried out at Universidad Carlos III in Madrid (UC3M) that analyzes the relationship between happiness and income from work. <\/strong><\/p>\n