Though the job of a fashion designer may seem glamorous, those in the industry rate their work as meaningless as fast food cooks do, according to a new survey by PayScale. The salary information company surveyed workers in 484 jobs about things like salary, job satisfaction and sense of meaning in their work.
To illustrate the results, PayScale created an interactive graphic (see below) that charts an occupation's median pay against the percentage of people in that job who report a high level of "meaning" at work. It also lets you search by industry, education level and experience level.
The study found a vague correlation between money and sense of meaning in a job -- you may notice both anesthesiologists and surgeons are rich and believe they're making a difference -- but the association is by no means absolute. For example, despite having a modest median pay of $45,400, 89 percent of clergy members feel more meaning than other workers. Musicians can also boast that more of them are satisfied at work than any other profession, despite a median salary of $49,800.
This echoes findings of previous studies, which find that money does bring happiness, but only up to a point.