I typed this up during the holidays (written on Nov. 27, 2022) and planned to share my work experience so far so you could reference this to stubborn family members who insist “this generation just doesn't want to work these days”.
Life got busy so here it is now. Anecdotes only go so far but I know y'all will resonate with it.
I started working when I was 17 at a daycare part-time while in high school. I was very lucky to start at $15/hr. I kept that job for two summers after finishing HS while attending college. By the end of my time there, my pay was increased to $17/hr. In college I picked up a student job on campus at the library. While working part-time at the library, and attending classes as a full-time student, I also worked at 2 unpaid internships relevant to my degree. In my senior year, the pandemic hit and I lost my library job and my two internships. I graduated with a Bachelor's degree in Biochemistry and was spit out into a world that was completely shut down with no job posting.
It wasn't easy finding a job in my field during/after the pandemic, and I did a series of odd jobs during the height of COVID. I was also incredibly lucky to be able to live with family during this time to keep costs low. I spent a full year applying to jobs relevant to my degree (while working these odd-jobs). I kept track of applications in Excel and sent 393 applications before being offered a position, after getting interviews with only 10. Never even heard back from 90% – not letting me know if I had been rejected or if they had even seen my application. This position I landed paid minimum wage, but I accepted it and told myself that it's experience and I can ask for more money with I prove myself, and find ways to make ends meet for now. I lived with family for four more months while I searched for the cheapest apartment in my area I could find – a $1200 1 bed.
This workplace ended up being terrible. It was a very small non-profit, with only 3 employees and a director. The 2 other employees and I were 'department heads' (each making ~30,000k/year while the average for that position is at least $50,000k) with the work of about 3-5 people each on our plates. Our director was a nightmare who would verbally abuse us and targeted one of us with sexual harassment. I lasted 4 months there. There was no HR person, of course. The three of us pleaded with the Board of Directors (our director's bosses) to help us, but they refused to get involved because the Board also feared our director.
We all quit within 2 weeks of each other. To make rent, I picked up a retail job.
I completely broke down in frustration when today at this new job I overheard my boss offer a new part time hire a buck more per hour ($17/hr.) than I'm am currently making, even though I am full time. He was not trying to be silent or private about this. He offered the new person the job and increased pay in front of me and another coworker in the back room, at a normal conversation level, only a few feet where we were working. My boss knew I overheard, and shortly after came up to me with two $5 dollar store gift cards to the store and said, “You're great, please don't quit.” Unfortunately, this isn't the first time he's pulled stuff like this. Whenever he is aware he's done something wrong, he bribes us with gift cards to our own store.
I am now 23, making less (16/hr.) than I made at my part-time high school job and with costs of living rising and rising, I'm planning on moving back in with my parents after only a year on my own.
I think about my finances constantly and check my bank account at least once a day. I don't think older folks grasp just how perpetually stressed millennials and gen z are about their finances and futures. I've beat myself up so much over even attending college and spending all that money. In an ideal job market, then maybe my degree could land a higher paying position. But this market is sluggish and most applications don't even get read, instead getting immediately tossed in the bin by an AI. In my retail job, plenty of my coworkers were in the same boat; they have a Bachelors or Masters but cannot find a place that will pay them fairly for that experience. It seems like we have to work twice as hard as older generations for 1/2 of the return.
TLDR: I graduated high school, went to college, studied a STEM field and received a degree, worked multiple jobs and internships in tandem, proved my value and asked for raises – so what gives? It seems like I did everything right by the books, but I was no more rewarded (as the adults in my young life promised) for it than my peers who chose different paths. I have gotten screwed over in job after job. I grew up being told that if you work hard and keep your head down, your hard work will be recognized and rewarded. I now fully believe that is a lie, or at least no longer true today.