Are You Willing To Earn Less To Change The World?

There’s no shortage of fresh graduates who want to change the world. Full of life, aspirational and ready to take on anything that’s thrown at them. They work hard, and genuinely want to make a difference in a world that’s often jaded, and less than forgiving. A recent report in the American Sociological Review suggests college graduates who are looking for a role with a ‘higher purpose’ will often accept a job that pays less, as long as they feel as though they’re ‘useful to society’.

These ‘prosocial’ jobs reduce the overall bump paid to college-educated workers by about 5 percent, and this might raise a few questions; why are people willing to take less pay for a job that is likely to work them as hard, or even harder than a regular job?

What kind of person is attracted to this kind of work and why, and are companies taking advantage of this when they advertise vacancies with a prosocial slant? Could businesses employing altruistic individuals be actually changing the world a little by reducing income inequality? To help us understand some of the thinking behind this we’ve invited psychiatrist Dr Mastura Rosly, from the Mind Matters Clinic, to give us her thoughts on the matter.

Photo Credit: Shutterstock | Ground Picture