Experienced well-being rises with income, even above $75,000 per year.
Level 3 - non-randomized controlled study
Level 3 by design analogy (large-scale observational experience-sampling study; non-clinical).
PubMed 33468644 · doi:10.1073/pnas.2016976118
What was done
Researchers analyzed 1,725,994 real-time experience-sampling reports collected from 33,391 employed United States adults to assess the relationship between income and two distinct dimensions of well-being: experienced well-being (momentary feelings) and evaluative well-being (reflective life satisfaction).
What was found
Both experienced and evaluative well-being increased linearly with log(income), maintaining an equally steep slope across lower and higher earners. There was no evidence of a plateau above $75,000 per year or a threshold where experienced and evaluative well-being diverged (exact effect sizes and confidence intervals were not reported in the abstract).
Why it matters
This paper challenges the widely cited prior finding that emotional well-being plateaus above $75,000 per year, indicating that higher income continues to correlate with both better daily emotional states and greater overall life satisfaction.
Limits
The abstract describes an observational, correlational dataset among employed US adults, precluding causal inference. Specific numerical estimates, effect sizes, statistical intervals, and adjustments for potential confounders (such as local cost of living, baseline wealth, or working hours) are not reported in the abstract.
Cited by
- supports Updated research demonstrates that the relationship between income and happiness is curvilinear, where happiness rises steeply initially and continues to rise beyond $75,000–$100,000 at a shallower slope.