The crazy view on salaries by Gen Z and Boomers

So a mind-blowing study was published this week, uh, and people on social media went wild when they saw the results. And basically what the study did was go and interview 2,200 Americans that were adults, and they asked them, uh, what level of salary is required in order to be successful? Like, how much money a year do you need to make, uh, in order to be considered successful and secure and kind of winning in life? And they went and asked people of all different age groups, everybody from Gen Z folks in their early 20s to baby boomers in their 70s, and asked them, well, what's the number? How much money do you need to make? And the results were, uh, were absolutely fascinating. So kind of in the middle age groups, you have Gen Z, Gen Xs, and millennials. I'm a Gen X, uh, and they kind of answered what you expected, $180,000, $200,000 a year. Just kind of numbers required to be more like success, right? And I would say those numbers were kind of based on reality, like Gen X and millennials, we know a bit more about how the world works and we're pretty close to in touch with it. But at the other end of the spectrum, you had young people and old people. So Gen Z, the young people, they answered $587,000 a year, just an enormous sum that blew people's minds. That young people would think you need to make that much money to be successful in the United States now. And the other end of the spectrum, you had old people giving, well, kind of what is a crazy answer too. Uh, on average, the baby boomers said that a salary of $99,000 a year would define you as successful. And for those of you living in the world right now, uh, $99,000 doesn't go as far as it used to. So anyway, you have this just fascinating result where at the end of the spectrum of kind of America, the young people and the old people are just, well, believe in some stuff that to those of us in the middle seems a little crazy. So this video is about what's going on, how do we interpret this, and then how does it affect us as entrepreneurs when the world is looking this way. And in the end, I'll give you a hot take on how I feel about the whole thing. If you're new here, my name is Michael. I love to film videos. I love to teach and talk about business. I am a business nerd. It is what I like to do. Other people ride horses, they hunt, they fly helicopters. Uh, I like to think about business and I like to talk about business, and I'm okay with doing that. So if you like that kind of stuff and you want to be educated on how to make money, how to think about business, how the world works and affects business, uh, please subscribe. Uh, I would love to have you. So to explain all this, let's make sure we're on the same page about when we start to talk about generations. And this idea of generational theory is that people of certain ages are— well, they behave in certain ways together because of shared things like the shared introduction of technology or the shared traumas of things going on. My generation, for example, Generation X, has some shared traumas that we went through as young people that definitely affect, well, how we approach the world. One of those, for example, is the 9/11 terrorist attacks, right? I was in my early 20s, and a lot of that shaped the decisions I made later on in life by going through that trauma. And it did the same thing even though I was in California and it all happened in New York. It did the same thing to many of my peers as well. And you can see the echoes of that shared trauma. And so that's how generational theory works. And you can imagine that also applies to things like, When do items like social media show up? Or what happens when a virus comes out of nowhere and shuts down the entire world for several years? Well, those are the traumas that kind of, well, cause generations to group together and act in ways that are, well, different. And if you consider kind of the shared trauma and influence that Gen Z has had, they've had a few, right? COVID and the inflation caused by COVID and the job market that has just been really not in their favor and the increasing cost of education. These are all things that have shaped Gen Z's worldview. And similarly, they've been the first generation to be exposed to social media and basically mobile phones and the internet as a day-to-day part of everything they do in life. They're the first ones to be native with that. Like my generation, Gen X, like I remember a time when like the internet wasn't a thing. Like we didn't, I remember when landlines were a thing. It was crazy. But anyway, so you put all that together and Gen Z has basically been shaped by those influences and those traumas. And it's no surprise that when you're bombarded with negativity and tons of social media outlets and accounts and Instagram accounts that are trying to win your attention by negativity, well, you're gonna become negative too. And if you look at the numbers for Gen Z, they're bad. They're just not good. 43% of them have been diagnosed with a mental illness of some sort. And this is also a very sad one for Gen Z. Less than half of them believe in the idea of the American dream. And the American dream is something I've talked about on this channel a lot. Uh, it is a fascinating thing and it's basically like if you work hard, if you bring, you know, contributions to society, if you get educated, you go to college, you'll be able to own a home and raise a family and live a good life. Well, like if less than half of your population as a generation believes in that, that's not a good thing. So now we're in a situation where Gen Z thinks that you need to earn nearly $600,000 a year, uh, in order to live a successful life. Um, and look, it makes a lot of sense that they feel this way. Uh, they've been bombarded by negativity in social media. The average home price is well over $400,000 in the US. That might as well be a billion dollars to somebody who's struggling to get basically an entry-level job out of college. And I'll put up this tweet here on the screen. It's fascinating. And this particular tweet is interesting. The Gen Z in it is very self-aware. But he also acknowledges why his generation is saying that you need to earn nearly $600,000 a year in order to get past the things that are bothering him. And he recognizes, hey, we as a generation are really anxious. We don't know if a single medical bill could ruin us for the rest of our life. Uh, we don't know if inflation is going to create a situation in which we can never even afford to buy a home, or if our job just might disappear. Um, it's fascinating to, to watch Gen Z basically describe why they need to have $600,000 a year to feel successful. And it all because— it's all because like there's just an enormous level of anxiety amongst this generation. And as Gen Z, or as Gen Z feels this way, like us kind of middle-aged people— though a guy called me a grandpa the other day on this site, it was so embarrassing. I'm only 50, guys, give me a break. But as a millennial, who's kind of middle-aged, or a Gen X who's older middle-aged now, like, all this doom and gloom from Gen X just seems like a foreign thing, right? Um, and I, you know, I don't know what to say to them other than, hey, like, it'll be okay. Like, we had similar worries when we were young too. But also, I think I recognize Gen Z, uh, has been exposed to so much more negativity than me and my generation was, so I gotta feel some empathy for the whole thing. And so as business owners, like, I think we should really be mindful of this type of attitude and high level of anxiety from Gen Z employees who are coming to us looking for raises or understanding stability or wanting to know the big picture. The reason they're asking questions like that is because they're coming at us with just this high level of anxiety based on just the traumas they've gone through. And, uh, that's where you have to expect it as a business owner. And understand where they're coming from. Because I think there's a real danger if you're an older millennial or a Gen X like me to be like, what? You guys are crazy. What are you doing? And the reality is they're not that crazy. They're just reacting to the world that they've been basically told for the past 20 years. But wait, there's another crazy number in this study. Older baby boomers think you can earn less than $100,000 a year in the United States and be quote unquote successful. You can own a home and have a nice car and be left over with savings. Like, How did they end up with that number? Because that's way too low. Like, there's no way that number works. So while boomers thinking you can get by with $100K a year and own a home and have cars and the American dream— sorry, it makes me laugh to think that anybody would actually believe that. But while it's, I think, understandable that baby boomers think that, you know, it's obviously not something that you're like, oh, well, that's cool. So, so Anyway, it's just funny. Anyway, cracking myself up about this. Okay, number, um, look, it's understandable that baby boomers would have this view of reality. A lot of them are retired now and they're in a position where like their, their attachment to the workforce and to the work world dates from a time when the dollar was worth a lot more and inflation wasn't such a big thing and asset prices like homes hadn't gone up so high. So their version of reality, well, it's understandable. Like, they spent 50-plus years in the workforce working really hard, and now they're off on retirement. So there's nothing wrong with that stuff. Well, except for the fact it's wrong. But it's understandable that they see the world that way. And so I think that's where we as entrepreneurs, as you're evaluating how this data will affect us running our businesses and thinking about our businesses, is that at each end of the spectrum, the young people and the old people, uh, seem to have very skewed worldviews about what it takes to be a success in America these days. And, uh, it's not necessarily wrong that they feel that way, um, because they're just coming at it from the reality of what they've experienced. And for us as business owners, like, the thing to understand is they're not going to come at it like we middle-aged folks would. In terms of thinking about the reality and what they want out of a job or what they want out of a business deal. And it's up to us to understand where they're coming from. And then ideally, we can make it work. And there's lots of ways to make good employee relations work with Gen Z folks. You want to let them have input into what's going on. You want to let them see the big picture of why behind things. And you want them to, as much as possible, be able to tie their income to their output, right? The better they perform, the more money they can make. And if you work for a baby boomer or have them in your business world, like, you have to understand they may be coming at things based on the perception of a world that maybe just doesn't exist anymore. And that's for you to understand and empathize where they're coming from and, well, see what you can do in terms of making all that work. So I promised a hot take on all this. Is this good or bad? I don't know. I really don't know. I do know how it makes me feel. It makes me sad to see that people at each end of our spectrum are, are struggling with kind of the world as it shifted. And it makes me especially sad given I'm a parent of teens, young Gen Zs, to see them say things like the world feels like it's hopeless or I can't win or, you know, the whole planet may end up dying in the next decade because of climate change. Like, it just makes me really sad to hear those things because I feel like my generation, Gen X, and I'm 50, grew up in a time of at least reasonable optimism. We didn't trust institutions, but we felt like with hard work and self-reliance you could get there. And I think that's such a gift for every society to— for— and especially it's the beauty of America. You feel like you can make things happen. It makes me sad to see Gen Z, and many of them think it's hopeless. Yeah. So I didn't mean to leave this whole thing on a downer, but that's it. The good news, I know, and all this to leave on a positive note, My generation, Gen X, continues to have it figured out, uh, even though nobody talks about us.