The latest research shows that even if the family’s annual income exceeds $500,000, no matter how much income it earns, it will significantly increase happiness. According to the report of
Walker Street Journal, a large number of studies have shown that salary adjustments have a great impact on low-workers, making them stable from insecurity, but they are usually believed to have much smaller effects after exceeding a certain gate.
But according to the study of Matt Killingsworth, a senior researcher at the Warton School of Business at Binzhou University, high-paying people receive a raise and feel as happy as those who are low-paying people, that is, they receive the same sense of happiness.
A popular study in 2010 pointed out that once the annual income exceeds the "happiness cessation point" of $75,000, no matter how much income you earn, it will not make people happier. But the latest research overturns this theory.
The study points out that from $10,000 to more than $500,000 each year, the average happiness and income will grow almost perfectly linearly, that is, the more you earn, the happier you will be. Even high-income earners with an annual salary of $500,000 are the same.
He also discovered that the linear correlation between happiness and income means that every dollar added to the edge of the utilities decrease exponentially, and that there is no real stoppage in mathematics. This represents a change in the proportion of income (such as a 10% salary increase) and feels the same sense of happiness at any income level, that is, whether the income is 10,000 or 500,000, if the salary increase is 10%, it feels the same happiness.
However, Killingsworth and other researchers have emphasized that not only money, but many other factors affect human happiness, including human relations, work, and the country where they live. "No single factor (including money) can fully guide the equation of happiness."
Based on the National Budget The latest data from the office shows that the average pre-tax income of the 20% of households with the lowest income in the United States in 2021 is about $23,000; the middle 20% of households have an average income of $87,000; the highest income of the 20% has an average income of about $418,000; the top-end high-income earners have exceeded $500,000.
Killingsworth also wrote in his article: "For individuals, continuing to pursue higher income is a completely reasonable choice, which helps pursue happiness." This sentence verifies the hearts of many Americans. According to data from financial services company Empower last year, visitors with annual income of $200,000 or more said that the median income they need is $350,000 to feel the pressure on their lives is reduced.
However, even if there is more happiness for more money, this is not absolute, because the "side effects" brought by people are different. Some people's happiness after a big salary increase will turn into loss, such as the empty feeling after the party; while some people will be willing to cut their salary because they do not want to have the heavy workload and pressure that will come with it after the salary increase.
Responsible editor: Gu Zihuan