What are the negative effects of getting a high salary?

When an employer pays a high salary to their workers, there are higher expectations of greater performance and valuable contribution from these workers to the business. With that comes a higher level of responsibility and stress.

The only way to receive a higher salary from the work we do is to climb the corporate ladder. No one is going to give us more money for doing the same things.

Climbing the corporate ladder for the purpose of gaining a higher salary has a number of negative effects. It includes:

1. Changes in legal positioning from a secure to the less secure work contract.
2. Finding and effectively coping with our incompetence.
3. Increased physical, emotional, and mental stress – e.g., burn out, poor health, poor eating habit, lack of sleep, and increased likelihood of gaining cancer.
4. Being terminated for non-performance or underperformance.
5. A possible trigger of severe depression.
6. Playing an effective game of office politics just to hang on dearly to the job as the result of intense competition.
7. Paying more personal income tax and not enjoying the fruits of your labour.

Generally, people with higher salaries are on fixed-term contracts for employment. They are contractors.

Higher performance expectations are usually captured in a contract for employment (as a fixed-term contractor) rather than in an ongoing contract of employment (as an ongoing employee).

If you want a higher salary, then be prepared to compromise and sign a contract for employment with different terms as a contract of employment. These contracts do not effectively protect the rights of the worker as many of the terms in the contract for employment are negotiated.

One key negative effect is the potential change to our legal positioning from a secure to less secure work contract.

I am always reminded about the Peter Principle where we can be promoted into higher-paying jobs that are beyond our level of competence.

When we do climb up the corporate ladder, we will reach a critical point of incompetence at some stage of our career where we will not be able to perform our jobs satisfactorily or as effectively.

For some people, it may be sooner. For others, it could be later.

The reality is that we will become incompetent in our jobs because of many factors including our lack of capacity and capability to comprehend the increased requirements and demands of the higher level, higher-paying job.

As a result, we are unable to practically meet the higher performance standards and expectations that usually accompany higher-paying jobs.

The bottom line is that you may want that higher salary. But you do not have the required competence, skills, and experience to perform that higher paying job at the higher expected performance level demanded by your employer.

If you still want a higher salary, then you must be prepared to work strategically hard to enlarge your attitude, capacity and capability to perform in that higher paying job.

You do so through further studies and education (e.g., going to a graduate school or doing an MBA course or professional qualification), hiring a professional mentor or coach who can provide higher-level guidance and senior management direction, working smarter, harder, and longer hours by sacrificing your family time and weekends, and sacrificing your sleep because of the constant worry about work and after-hours phone calls and emails.

Some people will cope well with these demands and the stresses and expectations of higher-paying jobs.

Majority of people will not.

In fact, stresses of higher-paying jobs may cause them to burn out, have poor health, develop poor eating habits, and experience increased stress levels and mental health issues.

Some people will not cope well with the increased expectation and stress. They will struggle to keep up with the increasing demands, expectations, and workload of the higher paying job.

The downside is that when they don’t perform to expectations, they will ultimately be shown the exit door or quit their jobs altogether.

I know of people who completely broke down doing their stressful jobs and went into a severe depression for the rest of their lives. The sad truth is that they never recovered from their mental condition.

Don’t forget about office politics, which will significantly increase as we climb the corporate ladder.

It goes without saying that you will spend more time and effort defending your higher-paying jobs because there will be more people eyeing your job. Your colleagues will find the opportune time to “throw you under the bus” and claim credit for themselves.

Unless you have the stomach to pay and win the game of office politics, earning more money may not be so flash after all when stress is factored in.

The irony is that when you are fortunate enough to have climbed the corporate ladder and moved into the corner office, Executives Style notes that “you’ll spend around 70% of your time trying to hold on to your job … you’ll be too busy fighting off everyone else who, just like you, wants the corner office.”

If you earn more, you will be taxed more.

Depending on your taxable income bracket and effective tax rate, earning $10,000 more per year (gross before tax) will only give you an additional $100 per week more (net of income tax).

Factoring the longer hours you need to put in the job and increased job stress, the cost per hour (financial and non-financial) to you may not be so worthwhile. In financial terms, the return on investment is not so great for you.