No one ever thinks they get enough, and everybody wants more. Yes, I am referring to wages and/or salary (for anyone who has wondered about the difference between these 2 terms, here’s an explanation from the Wikipedia: ‘Wages may be contrasted with salaries, with wages being paid at a wage rate (based on units of time worked) while salaries are paid periodically without reference to a specified number of hours worked.’)
Personally I see salary/wages more as an indication of appreciation of the work you do for your employer. If one does the same work as his/her colleagues but gets paid less/more than them, something is not right. One should get paid for the work that is done, not for some diploma that is gathering dust on the wall at home…
The same applies to what happens more and more here in Norway: Because of a shortage in the IT-market it happens that employers give their IT-people an extra raise. Not because of the work they do, but simply to keep them happy and to keep them from going to work for another employer.
In both of these cases salary is not a reward for the work one actually carries out. I’m not sure what to call it in the case of the dusty diplomas on the wall, but in the second case it’s nothing more or less than a bribe! And that’s just plain wrong…
(disclaimer: This is just something that I have been mulling over. It has nothing to do with any employment situation I have experienced at any current or past employer)