A few notes on how I feel about salaries at this young age:
Salary is relative. When I get a raise I think to myself “Wow, this is incredible amount of money for my age”. Appallingly, 4 months down the road I think to myself “I probably should be making a little more money”. I’m positive if you give me $200,000 after a few quarters I’ll begin to think that I should be entitled to a raise whether I deserve it or not.
Salary is secondary. The monetary value of a salary increase is great, but what really makes me happy is when the executives sit me down and say how impressed they are. I leave the room smitten with pride over their comments, not their financial gestures. Maslow is right.
Salary can demotivate . One company I worked for shared a pdf with guidelines on how much everyone should be getting paid. Even though these were just “guidelines”, I cannot express how disappointed I was to learn that there is a salary “ceiling”. I voiced my discontent to one of the execs and he iterated the fact they were guidelines and in no way is there a limit on how much I can earn. Despite the reassurance, I still became paranoid that the amount of subsequent salary increases would be a reflection of the guidelines and not my value to the company.