Hello everyone

In a recent Compensation.BLR.com poll, we asked “Do your workers under age 30 place more or less emphasis on pay than their older counterparts?"  (We asked the question based on the results of a survey we came across that noted that the number-one career concern for "Generation Y" (ages 21-28) was saving enough money for retirement.)

The result of our poll was as follows: 60% responded that younger workers "are more preoccupied with pay" than their older colleagues, while 30% replied that "there is no real difference", and just 10% responded that they are "less preoccupied with pay."

Can anyone offer any insights as to why they voted the way that they did? Or just offer their opinion on why HR professionals are under this impression (that younger workers place more emphasis on pay)? Any experiences to share that has left you with this impression? Any feedback to supply some context to the outcome of the poll results would be great. Thanks again!

Chris Ceplenski

Senior Editor, BLR

I have found a large group of overly-educated and under-experienced Gen Y'ers lately.  Many students graduating with their Bachelor's degrees are realizing that it isn't enough to make the $s coming out that they want, so they are immediately going on to get their MBAs....with little/no experience. Universities are allowing it because it is increase their size/prestige of their MBA program.  Those teaching in MBA programs sometimes do not have a real view of the business world anymore....and are looking at how these students progressed through the MBA program rather than what they are worth to the business world. They convince the students that they will come out making more than with a Bachelor's alone (even though they truly have no more experience, just a bit more book knowledge). 

At the same times, these students are taking student loans (into 6 figures) to pay for much of this education/living expenses during that time.  So when they come out, I am finding they DO need more money to live on because of the debt load they are currently carrying. I have one employee that is carrying $150K in student loan debt (with a graduate level degree) who is making 1/3 of that per year.

We had one whose graduate advisor told her to decline our job offer because it was too low for how high she was in her class.  What's interesting is that she landed a job in another company that only paid about 5% more, but she wanted to negotiate about 20% more with us.    I really do wonder when the last time the graduate advisor worked outside academia.  This candidate also had a 6 figure student loan debt.

Personally, I think that personal debt leads to more preoccupation with pay than any other factor.

 

I don't think younger workers are more preoccupied with pay, they are simply more knowledgeable about pay.  There were no websites, no electronic networks, no easily accessible information when I started my career.  I had little or no idea of what to expect paywise and was happy to get paid what I did (which wasn't much).  Many of our younger workers are also from a generation that was showered with praise, deserved or not (in the interest of boosting self-esteem).....so is it any surprise that their expectation is that they will be at the top of their pay grade?

 

I think HRforMe andd Denshu are right on target.  I have done a lot of college recruiting and have also gone back to the university I graduated from to speak to some Business and HR classes about "the real world".  These students are coming out of college with big loans that they now have to pay back.  They are also being told that because they have a college degree they are a step ahead of everyone else and so they THINK they deserve more money.  They are also doing research online about the jobs they are interested in and can see what some of the salaries are.  They are not taking into consideration that most positions require you to have some sort of experience, which many of these individuals do not have.

During my speaking engagements I talk about looking at other things in addition to salary (company culture, work hours, etc.) to make sure the job is right for them.  I also tell them that when I am recruiting it is not all about whether someone has a degree or not.  Experience talks. I recommend that these students go out and do an internship or two. This way, when they are applying for jobs in their field they can say they have the college degree as well as some experience. 

At career fairs on college campuses the mentality now is what can you do for me.  One of the first questions I get asked is what is the pay and benefits. This is before they find out the particulars of the job and company.  When I first started in HR it was tell me about your company and position and then they asked about pay and benefits.

To be fair to the younger group, I will tell you that I am starting to see more people (of any age) having the conversation early on about pay.   I think pay and benefits have become very important for all age groups as everyday living expenses continue to rise a lot faster than salaries do.

 

I think there are a couple of issues. Young people nowadays are more computer savvy and often go online to look for salary data. While it's commendable to do some research before negotiating salary, they don't know how to read the data. Most surveys list the median wage/salary, sometimes for a particular area, sometimes a national median. What this means is that there are people earning much less or much more on either side of the median. They do not take into account that starting salary/wage is often much lower than what is often published, and there is also the issue of cost of living index. Especially for a new graduate with no experience, expecting to be paid as much as someone who's been at the job for at least a couple of years or comparing the salary between an area with a lower cost of living index with the national median is unrealistic. Some surveys list the spread, which is helpful, but who wants to think he or she is going to be earning at the 10th percentile, even though it is probably more reflective of starting salary/wage? There is also the problem of irrelevant comparison: comparing the salary between two completely unrelated fields. Some fields just simply start with a higher salary. Just because your college roommate found a job in software development earning $50K does not mean you will find a job as a retail management trainee earning that much.

Mabel brings up a good point-- that is, young people right out of college are much more likely to talkabout how much money they will be making. Moreso than any other group, I would imagine.  I remember sitting around talking about our job offers, pay, benefits etc as a group at school. I think once you get out and get into the corporate rule, you learn the unwritten rule of "confidentiality of pay".