long hours and low pay equal happiness for self-employed

Since I somewhat recently started working as a freelance journalist, I was fascinated to see that someone had studied the work habits and happiness of the self-employed.

They found that despite working long hours and not making much money, self-employed people were happier than their wage slave counterparts. Link to press release.

This seems to fit with other findings about happiness and stress, which show that beyond a certain minimum level, making more and having more doesn't make people happy. What matters then is how they weigh up with those around them, and how they interact with others.

In chickens or monkeys, the animals on the top of the hierarchy are less stressed, and so it seems that the self-employed might avoid some of the stress of being directly under a boss's thumb. Maybe this accounts for their higher happiness.