Millennial and Gen Z Employees Are Happier With Their Paychecks Than Older Workers

Millennials have a reputation for being entitled, but when it comes to their paychecks, it turns out people under 35 are actually pretty content.

According to data from the Conference Board shared by the Wall Street Journal, American employees under 35 reported being more content with their salaries than people over 55 for the first time since 2011. The survey found that between 2017 and 2018, millennial and Gen Z workers saw a major increase in paycheck satisfaction, from 36 percent to 46 percent. This increase in positive salary perception was the biggest leap among all generations.

Satisfaction with salaries saw an overall increase among all workers as well, albeit a smaller one. According to the survey, the total share of workers who reported being content with their paychecks increased to 46.4 percent in 2018, up from 43 percent in 2017. This increase, as theWSJ noted, corresponds with an overall wage growth acceleration in 2018.

But while paycheck satisfaction seems to be on the rise, no age group contained a majority of people were content with their salaries. Overall job satisfaction fared better, with 54 percent of all workers agreeing that they were happy with their jobs in general in 2018.

According to the WSJ, younger workers may be more content with their pay because they tend to move jobs more than older employees, and those job shifts often come with a raise. The Bureau of Labor Statistics reported a five percent increase in median weekly earnings from 2017 to 2018, and that increase was 7.6 percent for workers between 25 and 34.

However, while things may seem to be on the upswing, the data is less flattering in a broader historical context. As WSJ noted, overall job satisfaction was considerably higher in the first year of the study, 1987, when it hovered around 61 percent, meaning today’s workers are still considerably less satisfied than in pervious decades.

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Kayla Kibbe

Kayla Kibbe is an associate editor at InsideHook primarily covering sex, dating and relationships. Her work has appeared at MEL Magazine, Health.com, Brides and more.