Workers are driven by “meaning” not paychecks: Studies show that 9 out of 10 workers would choose meaningful jobs over a bigger paycheck. “Work is about a search for daily meaning as well as daily bread, for recognition as well as cash, for astonishment rather than torpor,” wrote Pulitzer Prize-winner Studs Terkel over 40 years ago. Even though the search for meaningfulness in jobs has only climbed since then, businesses have failed to evolve to meet the demand, a group of researchers argue in a piece for the Harvard Business Review. Most employers are failing to create “meaningfulness” at work or translate it into monetary value, an HBR survey of over 2k American professionals has revealed.

How much is “meaning” worth to workers? American workers would give up 23% on average of their “entire future lifetime earnings” to have a job that provides them with meaning on a consistent basis, the researchers found. The finding supports a previous study that had revealed that 80% of workers would rather have a caring boss who helps them find meaning than a 20% salary increase.

How much is it worth to businesses? Workers with meaningful jobs are not just more satisfied, data shows they spend more time working and even take fewer days off. “Based on established job satisfaction-to-productivity ratios, we estimate that highly meaningful work will generate an additional USD 9,078 per worker, per year.”