Survey Measures Pay versus Pride

Those participating in the survey by New York consultant Katzenbach Partners LLC agreed with that statement by more than a three to one margin. Only 15% disagreed.

Age clearly played a factor in determining how people ranked pride versus pay, according to the survey. While 47% of those between 25 and 34 years old strongly supported the statement ranking professional pride first, older workers indicated they would rather see a higher salary.

Only a quarter of the workers between 45 and 54 years old strongly agreed that workplace pride was more important than raises; the number dropped to only 20% for workers over 55.

Work-Life Balance

One thing affecting the importance of salary that stood out in the survey, was how workers perceive their company’s ability to balance what is important to the company with what is important to them.

Almost 75% of the people who “mostly agreed” that the company supported a business-personal balance indicated that they were committed to the organization’s success. Almost two-thirds said they were proud to work there.

In comparison, less than 50% of those who either disagreed or slightly agreed that the company achieved a good work-life balance backed their employer’s success and three quarters rejected the idea that they were proud to be there.

Katzenbach developed the study with TNS Intersearch, which conducted the telephone survey with over 1,000 participants in March 2002.