psychic income

noun

1. the personal or subjective benefits, rewards, or satisfactions derived from a job or undertaking as separate from its objective or financial ones.

Word History and Origins

Origin of psychic income¹

First recorded in 1900–05

Example Sentences

For some residents the biggest blow is the whittling away of their “psychic income.”

From Seattle Times

Now that the theaters of Broadway and other entertainment and sports venues are being shuttered for at least a month, we can begin to reflect not only on the losses in box-office income but also psychic income.

From Washington Post

He slashed the budget of the state’s sprawling university system: Faculty members, he said, should accept lower salaries because their work brought them “psychic income.”

From New York Times

In practice, however, many companies appear to have a hard time resisting the urge, as United did, to blur the lines between wages and motivation — to shift from paying workers in cash to paying them with less cash and more psychic income.

From New York Times

We get tremendous psychic income; we have met so many good people through horses.

From Washington Times