I am curious to hear how various salary increases have impacted peoples quality of life.
Was this impact in personal perceived self-worth? External perception of self-worth?
Increased feeling of financial security?
Upgraded life style in anyway?
Felt less stressed at work? Felt that your hard work was now more "worth it"?
I went through 2 big jumps in salary. The first one gave me a huge boost to self-worth, kept looking at the email and could not believe they were offering me that figure. Became more blase for the second jump and believe I won't get that thrill again.
Biggest impact was
peace of mind/safety. Now my rent is less of a percentage of my income and I feel safer and more secure. I can always buy less clothes, go fewer times to the restaurant etc but I feel very safe knowing I won't have to live in subpar housing, or have to flatshare with strangers, or put up with bad quality, cheapest option, unhygienic conditions.
I don't have to buy cheap things ever again! You know when you have little money and you have to buy the cheap stuff even though if you spent more it would actually last longer, give you more pleasure and actually same you money? But don't have the damn money. I haven't increased my expenditure, my yearly outgoings has remained the same £ figure but now I buy the next level quality and it makes me much happier. Also, since I can buy stuff, I no longer have the obsession that comes from not being able to have something.
Regarding work, the workload has decreased and the environment has gotten better, but the responsibility has increased. Overall, nobody gave me a raise for no reason and I was well aware stress/responsibility would go up, but it did so in a reasonable way so no complaints.