I agree, but I think the converse point is also true: employers will attempt to pay you less (under industry standards) if the job incurs any kind of side-effect that you might be proud about, or is in a glamorous industry.
I think this is a more important point.
The “it’s not just about the money, but also about X, Y, Z” (freedom, cool working conditions, social impact, …) is almost a platitude. I’ve had multiple employers using on me, and it really it wasn’t warranted at all (the jobs were in niche sectors, but weren’t glamorous, impactful to society, nor did they have extremely desirable working conditions).
The argument you make has been completely co-opted by HR departments.
The truth is that the job market is a market. It is a function of supply and demand. Jobs that are glamorous (in which I include impactful job) face more labor supply compared to other jobs, and so wages can be lower.
These jobs will naturally be picked by people whose utility function values the glamour highly compared to money. So your point remains true (they might be more motivated).
Will your high-glamour low-wages job seeker will be more productive than your low-glamour high-wages job seeker? Maybe, but I’m not so convinced. I think a key different is that glamour-preference is relatively inelastic, and there are fewer venues to gratify it. Whereas it’s easy to jump ship when money is your only object, just find a company that pays more (not that this is a great strategy for money maximization, but it’s easy). Another fact to consider is that there aren’t that many truly high-paying job (or at least, high-paying enough such that the utility of the high-wage seeker would equal the utility of the glamour-seeker).
I also think a key driver of this “drive” in glamour-seeker is that, beyond low wages, employers tend to press their advantage by wringing out more from the employees. The video game industry is a prime example of this. I’ve also heard that many non-profits have notoriously bad working conditions. Mostly anecdotal evidence, but it adds up.
Finally, I doubt public defenders are more skilled than other lawyers—but they did clearly pick a different trade-off.
I agree, but I think the converse point is also true: employers will attempt to pay you less (under industry standards) if the job incurs any kind of side-effect that you might be proud about, or is in a glamorous industry.
I think this is a more important point.
The “it’s not just about the money, but also about X, Y, Z” (freedom, cool working conditions, social impact, …) is almost a platitude. I’ve had multiple employers using on me, and it really it wasn’t warranted at all (the jobs were in niche sectors, but weren’t glamorous, impactful to society, nor did they have extremely desirable working conditions).
The argument you make has been completely co-opted by HR departments.
The truth is that the job market is a market. It is a function of supply and demand. Jobs that are glamorous (in which I include impactful job) face more labor supply compared to other jobs, and so wages can be lower.
These jobs will naturally be picked by people whose utility function values the glamour highly compared to money. So your point remains true (they might be more motivated).
Will your high-glamour low-wages job seeker will be more productive than your low-glamour high-wages job seeker? Maybe, but I’m not so convinced. I think a key different is that glamour-preference is relatively inelastic, and there are fewer venues to gratify it. Whereas it’s easy to jump ship when money is your only object, just find a company that pays more (not that this is a great strategy for money maximization, but it’s easy). Another fact to consider is that there aren’t that many truly high-paying job (or at least, high-paying enough such that the utility of the high-wage seeker would equal the utility of the glamour-seeker).
I also think a key driver of this “drive” in glamour-seeker is that, beyond low wages, employers tend to press their advantage by wringing out more from the employees. The video game industry is a prime example of this. I’ve also heard that many non-profits have notoriously bad working conditions. Mostly anecdotal evidence, but it adds up.
Finally, I doubt public defenders are more skilled than other lawyers—but they did clearly pick a different trade-off.