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Are You Making Enough To Feel Successful? (Probably Not.)

This article is more than 9 years old.

Does the number in the "amount" line on  your paychecks have you feeling like less than a world beater?

You're hardly alone.

According to a nationwide survey conducted by Harris Poll and released last week by CareerBuilder--and coming as no surprise to anyone, most likely--an overall majority of Americans are dissatisfied with their salaries.

But while those who feel they're being underpaid make up an overall majority, the picture changes when salaries are broken down by range. As it turns out, above the $75,000 mark, most workers feel they're earning what they deserve.

(Helpful reminder: The annual mean wage for U.S. workers is just above $46,000.)

“The survey supports past research suggesting that the $75,000 threshold is particularly significant, as this level allows households in most areas of the country to not only get by, but enjoy an ideal lifestyle and a secure future,” said Rosemary Haefner, vice president of human resources at CareerBuilder.

Positive cost of living news--however welcome--aside, it's difficult to discern a clear message from the data, and money-as-motivator is a topic that's long divided organizational researchers.

More than half of the survey's respondents (55%) reported they feel successful earning less than $70,000. But even the higher-tiered "most satisfied" bracket--$100,000 to $149,000--is only 66% happy campers. An even higher percentage (68%) said they don't need to earn more than $100,000 to feel successful, but that's a number that shifts when examined by gender: 29% of men need to clear six figures to feel like achievers, compared to 15% of women.

Haefner stresses that "success is relative to the type of work individuals do or their current career stage," which seems to suggest that possible conflict among the data points may indicate that actually, salary may not be the most reliable metric of an individual's perception of their own success.

"Regardless of income, we found that workers tend to find success near their own salary level or in the range directly above,” said Rosemary Haefner, vice president of human resources at CareerBuilder. “This is healthy because it shows workers can derive meaning from their work at any level while still striving for that next promotion or raise.”

Would greater salary transparency change things? Not necessarily.

Roughly 30% of employers disclose employee salaries, with a greater percentage of IT and sales organizations disclosing individual compensation information than companies in any other industry, and smaller companies--those with fewer than 20 employees--are more likely to share than companies with more staff.

Almost half of employers surveyed view potential disclosure as a positive, believing it "ensures pay equality" and that it can "dispel wrong assumptions."

Those employers on the other side of the argument suggest the potential to foster envy and erode morale, or encroach on employee privacy. Nineteen percent warn of equal pay litigation. Most significant? Sixty-five percent of employees agree.

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