“Being a truck driver…I get paid to go on road trips and listen to Rogan, other podcasts, and music all day.”
“Not in the warehouse world. No no no. If you tell your boss you got 3 hours of work done in 1 hour they will then dump everything on you. They will continue adding to your plate. You’ll get the opposite of fired. Youll get so burnt out and stressed that you quit.”
“Some people die at 25 and aren’t buried until 75.”
“The absolute worst thing in the world is knowing you can finish all of your tasks in one hour but you have to stretch it out over 8. Pure torture.”
Is salary important to workers? Bet your bottom dollar it is.
“Employees will go where the money is. And where they’re treated respectfully and valued. But, mostly, it’s the money.”
When we asked those respondents to choose from a list of top reasons why they’re open to new opportunities, nearly two-thirds (63.4%) selected “I need to make more money”.
That’s more than double the next-most popular reason, which is “I need a fresh challenge” (24.6%).
Work flexibility (20.8%), meaningfulness in work (19.3%) and career advancement (also 19.3%) are other leading factors prompting the drive to explore new job opportunities. Still, those numbers pale in comparison to compensation.
A good salary in Germany is the one that will allow you to afford the lifestyle that you want. Anything above 47.700 euros a year (gross) will place you in Germany’s above-average range of income.
We answer the question “what is a good salary in Germany?”. We tackle the average annual salaries based on different factors and provide an answer to the question: “Will my salary be enough?”
YouTube comments:
“This is a great video with a good breakdown! I moved from a big city and took a paycut on my previous gross salary, but I have been amazed how much I am provided for in Germany and never really felt broke despite technically having much lesser money than before. I think until you live here and really experience the economy and plan your finances, the numbers are just… numbers! End of the day I believe we should be fighting for fair salaries, and not higher ones just for the sake of it.”
“Whenever I read about 40% taxe rate, it makes me a bit frustrated. But looking from the other perspective, all of those high contributors I make are the reason why the life for people all ages so good and reliable in Germany, right? I would like to reveal those details and understand the real value of the contributions I would make :)”
“It’s however important to mention that living in Germany you have access to many amenities and infrastructure not available to you in other countries unless you hire someone yourself or you pay a net price for it.”
Vox. 2016. Hillary Clinton has made short-term thinking in corporate America — also known as “quarterly capitalism,” a reference to the pressure companies feel to meet quarterly earnings predictions — a central issue in her campaign.
That issue has been bubbling beneath the surface of policy discussion for years, but it’s gained fresh attention as influential investors such as Warren Buffett and Lawrence Fink (of BlackRock, the world’s biggest asset holder), and politicians like Vice President Joe Biden, have stepped up to warn of the perils to our economy of turning away from a long-term perspective.
Aspen Institute. 2015. While the immediate value of reducing these costs is easily seen on the company balance sheet, the lost revenue of reduced worker performance goes uncounted. What’s worse, all of these practices create arms-length relationships between employers and workers, weakening trust and dampening enthusiasm for the work.
This in turn reduces the likelihood that businesses will invest in productivity-enhancing training of the workforce. Recent research bears this out, noting that an “easy hire, easy fire” policy leads to diminished worker productivity and innovation.
Harvard Business Review. 2015. Thirty years ago, no less a business guru than Peter Drucker weighed in, skewering short-termism in a Wall Street Journal editorial.
“Everyone who has worked with American management can testify that the need to satisfy the pension fund manager’s quest for higher earnings next quarter, together with the panicky fear of the raider, constantly pushes top managements toward decisions they know to be costly, if not suicidal, mistakes,” he wrote.
The Atlantic. 2016. There was a time, half a century ago, when what was good for many American corporations tended to also be good for America. Companies invested in their workers and new technologies, and as a result, they prospered and their employees did too.
Now, a growing group of business leaders is worried that companies are too concerned with short-term profits, focused only on making money for shareholders. As a result, they’re not investing in their workers, in research, or in technology—short-term costs that would reduce profits temporarily. And this, the business leaders say, may be creating long-term problems for the nation.
Forbes. 2021. Life and work can at times prove to be exceedingly difficult, as the past year plus has shown, and we can all be forgiven if, in our current circumstances, we look not towards the future but the next moment of relief.
All the platitudes about tough times making for tough people are well and good, but they’re easier to offer from the outside rather than during a trying period. Let’s face it, this period of uncertainty is seemingly ever-ending. In these circumstances, it’s easy to see how people can make decisions aimed at the short-term amelioration of their problems that might work against their long-term interests.
New York Times. 2015. From Wall Street to Washington and in the towers of academia, people are buzzing about what some say is the pernicious focus in corporate America on short-term profits.
To understand the debate, it helps to understand the various forces that contribute to the pressures on companies to focus on short-term financial results. Those pressures are not just a product of one bad actor. It turns out that nearly everyone in the investment world plays a role in creating the challenges companies face in setting their sights on the far horizon.