[Arles]

I would say it's more the time investment in your job and the stress of staying at that pay rate. The actual job activities are probably not more stressful.There is a bonus to just working the 40 hours you are paid for and leaving your work at the place. Take our manufacturing plant I work out. We have some hourly guys making $22-25 an hour. With bonuses and occasional paid overtime, they probably gross $55K. We have salaried support staff (QA, engineers, IT) who make $70-75K - but they usually work closer to 50 hours a week and have to be on call over the weekend if things break/have issues. So, the physical effort for the hourly guy is a little more during his 40 hours - but he gets to leave work here and has an extra 10-15 hours a week to spend doing what he wants outside of work. And, if he's asked to work an extra 10 hours, he gets paid for that.