My first boss…I just didn’t like his methods. I thought I was doing well …I got $1000—a 10 percent raise—and I was quite pleased…I thought I was doing much more than everybody else, I thought I was performing at a different level…and everyone came bouncing back with their raise and they all got $1000. So [the] raise that sort of pleased me at one point now irritated the hell out of me…And so I quit. I had a baby and no money. I borrowed $1000 bucks from my mother. I quit.

Guess who told this story? Why it’s Jack Welch in this article.

Which illustrates nicely that our satsifaction with our salaries depends not on absolute numbers but on the perceived fairness of that salary.

And of course, the best way to make salaries more fair, is to make them public inside the company.

Btw: Scientists have found the center in our brain that gives us our sense of fairness.