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Of course, it is nice to hear, "We really appreciate you." But someone can say that to their employees until they are blue in the face. If the employees do not receive their paychecks at the end of the month, no amount of spoken gratitude will cause them to come back the next day.

Statistics report that on average, men are still being paid higher than women for working the same jobs. But the reason has nothing to do with gender bias. Instead, the reason tends to be that men demand higher pay. Women will sometimes be more timid and be grateful for more grateful for praise. For many women, historically accustomed to being noticed for being good daughters, good wives, good mothers, good friends, and good women, what is said about or to them determines their feelings of worthiness. For many men, historically accustomed to being noticed for providing for their families and building the nice homes, what is brought home in the form of income determines their feelings of worthiness. Even today, some of these standards remain.

Increasing a pay check is also a genuine sign of respect and recognition. It is very easy for a boss to say "Good job." It is much more difficult for a boss to part with more money. To to so is the highest compliment. "You are worthy of more than just the spoken word," the pay check attests. "You are worthy of a little more of what makes our company successful, our revenue."

For a good pay check, people will take a lot of verbal abuse, the very opposite of recognition. My 58 year old father recently accepted a two month long job working as a manual laborer. The job is physically difficult, demanding that he walk for miles, handle heavy equipment, and climb tall ladders.

He has now been working for seven days straight. This morning, he got out of bed and confided in my mother, "This is getting hard."

He wasn't talking about the physical demands.

"I'm not sure how much longer I can take working around this guy," he continued. Upon reaching the work place, my father had been placed under the supervision of a man who had worked at this company for a long time and who despised my father's very presence. First, with the arrival of this new work crew that my father was with, this man had to change from an eight hour workday to a twelve hour workday. Secondly, he found out that this new work crew was being paid a lot more than he was. Thirdly, he despised having to supervise my father at all hours of the day.

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