Money Can’t Buy Day-to-Day Happiness, But . . . .

Bloomberg Businessweek reports on a new study that will appear in this month’s Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. The researchers who conducted the study used data from the Gallup-Healthways Well-Being Index, which surveyed 450,000 Americans over a two year period about their household income, emotional state during the prior day, and overall feelings about their life and well-being. Here are the results.

After an employee reaches $75,000 in annual income, additional income won’t increase day-to-day happiness. However, employees who top $75,000 in annual income are more apt to say that they are satisfied overall with life, even though their day-to-day happiness gets no boost.

The study seems to say that there are two kinds of happiness: daily contentment and overall satisfaction with life. If I had to guess, I think that most employees would value overall happiness more than day-to-day happiness, because they would be making in excess of $75,000. I mean, who can say that one type of happiness is better than the other? Even the researchers say this is “a really deep, hard question.”

The study also shows that employees in either happiness camp won’t be happy at all if they lose a substantial amount of annual income. In fact, employees participating in the study reported declining happiness and increased sadness and stress as their income dropped.

I can’t say what impact this study will have on employers and employees. I’m pretty sure it will make the unemployed feel even more miserable. It’s a somewhat bizarre study to be done in the middle of a recession.