Your first paycheck teaches you about taxes fast. It doesn’t teach you your worth. An hourly rate isn’t a personality.

The first payslip is an education in subtraction. You worked the hours, you did the arithmetic in your head, and the number that arrives is smaller, which is how most people learn what tax and deductions actually are. What the figure does not tell you is anything about your value as a person. It is a price for a particular set of hours in a particular job.

Read the payslip properly rather than just the total. Find the deductions, work out your real rate, and check the hours match what you worked. Knowing how the number is built is useful; letting it rank you is not.