[Lutger]

You see it a lot because there has been extensive empirical research that led to this conclusion, which does get summarized in discussions to a point where nuances have been lost. If you earn a really low wage, a little bit of extra money buys a lot of happiness. If you earn quite decent, there's a point it doesn't buy more happiness at all.

For C-suites I imagine money is more of a symbol for power and prestige, though I know little about it.

And yes, everybody is unique and all that, but also probably not as special as they like to think. Social research is never generalizable to a point where you can say: all people are like this or that, nor does it have to be to make an interesting point. I also didn't qualify the statement in that way, because I don't know the numbers by heart. But I remember reading from the actual research that there was a large difference in what motivates people (it was not equal as you seem the suggest) and salary was quite low on the list.