Author: Christina Dunn-Seru
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Salary is the most important thing to keep people happy at work, right?
Maybe not.
Ask 2,000 people what makes them happy in a job and you get some interesting answers. Lexington Law, a Utah-based credit repair firm, recently did that to find out what people valued in a job. Salary didn’t top the list, surprisingly.
The Lexington Law survey found Americans are significantly more likely to value things like benefits, interests and company culture rather than salary when selecting jobs.
About 60 percent would accept a job they love at half their current income over a job they dislike.
However, when you break it down by age, Millennials and Generation X workers would be willing to take a job they disliked — as long as they doubled their current income.
When asked what are the important factors when taking a job, the answers were not as unanimous as you might think. Nearly 70 percent of the respondents said salary is not the most important factor. About 40 percent said interests and passions were the most important factor.
About 10 percent cited benefits — which scored higher than company culture (7 percent). Overall, respondents said benefits and company culture were 70 percent more important than salary when taking a job.
With benefit offerings being so important in today’s tight job market, it’s another reminder why adding fringe benefits like commuter benefits can make a big difference when someone is weighing the pros and cons of joining a company.
Employers benefit too for many reasons. The first is payroll taxes. Since your employees have less taxable income, you will pay less in payroll taxes.
Third, since commuting is often frustrating and lengthy, your employees will appreciate you letting them pay less to do it.
Interested in learning more about commuter benefits? Download our 101 Commuter Benefits Guide.
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Christina Dunn-Seru is the Human Resources Manager for Edenred Commuter Benefit Solutions. Christina’s expertise includes talent management and recruiting, organizational development, training and development and leadership and management coaching. Christina is passionate about helping the organization retain and attract top talent as well as performance management for the organization. Christina holds a Bachelor’s degree in Business Management from Providence College in addition to a Graduate Certificate in Human Resources Management from Northeastern University. Additionally, Christina also periodically collaborates with the Commuter Benefit Solutions blog.
