Why Gen Z Is Breaking This Longtime Workplace Taboo
Generation Z is bucking many workforce trends — but among them is the longstanding taboo around openly discussing salaries.
A recent survey from Bank of America, which was conducted in February and covered by Forbes in May, found that 27 percent of Gen Z — currently adults between 18 and 29 — talk about their salary and income with friends.
That compares to 20 percent of Millennials, 12 percent of Gen X, and only 3 percent of Boomers.
Holly O’Neill, president of consumer, retail, and preferred at Bank of America, noted “that’s a big number.”
“I can definitely say I’m Gen X and I did not do that when I was their age,” she said.
O’Neill described Gen Z as a “generation that often puts dialogue out in the open marketplace.”
In a more recent interview with Fox Business, Wall Street Journal free expression associate editor Mary Julia Koch confirmed the trend of Gen Z being more open about money.
Fox Business described the phenomenon as “loud budgeting.”
“I think my generation is more open about everything. I mean, we’ve grown up posting online, our relationships, our friendships, our college lives,” Koch said.
“It makes sense that this is sort of the next frontier where people are documenting their budgets and their financial lives.”
Koch said that more awareness generally encourages more ownership of financial decisions — especially as financial literacy education is limited in schools.
“I think at least it gets the conversation started,” she said.
“Some awareness is a positive development, especially in an economy that feels very uncertain as young people enter a labor market that could be wrecked by the prospect of AI.”
Job listing platform Handshake confirmed that companies are responding to the trend toward salary transparency by more often posting salaries in their listings.
In 2020, about 29 percent of full-time job postings mentioned the salary associated with the position.
But by 2022, 38 percent of those listings included a salary.
Some states are even considering legislation to encourage salary transparency.
“Gen Z wants to be shown the money — and policymakers and employers are answering the call,” Handshake said.
“Economic uncertainty, higher cost of living, and increasing state and local legislation around pay transparency are shifting the conversation on the delicate subject of salary.”
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