Can someone explain this sense of entitlement by the younger generation? When I hear the younger gen complaining that they aren't getting paid enough when they start at 70k which is more than some experienced hires.....I just don't understand.

Can someone explain this sense of superiority by the elder generation? 70k may have been big bucks 30 years ago when your summer job could fully cover college tuition, but starting out at 70k when you have tens of thousands of dollars in student loan debt anywhere other than a LCOL city will feel like you’re scraping the bottom of the bucket.

When I was making 70k when I started two years ago, my net monthly paycheck was ~$3400. My rent was $1500, car note $300, minimum student loan payments $700 (my mother told me $700 would have covered an entire semester of university for her in the late 80’s), insurance $150, utilities $150, groceries $300, pet expenses $100. $3100 of my take home pay immediately went to my bare minimum responsibilities and I live in a LCOL city. I was so confused how I barely had any money to create a strong emergency fund or get ahead on loan payments or have some fricking fun each month, since I graduated with an engineering degree and was continuously told I’d be financially comfortable and would never have any issues paying for what I wanted, and then I graduate and 90% of my paycheck is for my bare minimum responsibilities. Everyone I knew who was making 70k and still having a social life were either deeply in credit card debt, or their parents were still paying for most of their monthly expenses.

Portraying a generation as monolithic is ridiculous. But for starters, in 1963 tuition at a four-year public college cost $1,286 per year, which amounts to $10,555 when adjusted for inflation. This means that college costs grew by 140.6% when inflation was considered. From 1989 to 2016. The costs of college grew eight times faster than wages (Bustamante, 2019).

Now these graduates are competing in a global marketplace against qualified people who did not require the same level of investment (debt) in a marketplace with massive downward pressures on wages and number of available positions.

That’s just for the college educated. The gutting of manufacturing in the US is a whole other subject. For reasons I will never understand, blue collar work is devalued compared to white collar, and is perceived as warranting lower wages. (Got news for the data & analytics people out there: what you do is a lot closer to a trade than a highfalutin’ science or elite position.)

So in this scenario, yes…in the absence of pensions, wages rising commensurate with productivity, whittled away health benefits, and plateauing living standards….demanding some concessions on work/life flexibility, not wearing silly costumes to a workplace, and wanting their generated value be prized more highly than when their ass hits their seat seem like reasonable demands.

Isn’t it about time for all these old mindsets to have the courtesy to see their way out to pasture or the tar pits?

Look at cost of tuition and real estate nowadays compared to the boomer generation and you'll quickly understand why 70k is not enough.

Is it entitlement or do younger generations simply have a backbone and are willing to fight for what they’re worth? And couldn’t this also be argued as experienced hires being underpaid and not knowing their proper worth?

Because we don’t live to work yet put in 60 hrs a week. That’s a job and a half. When looking at pay per hour, it is peanuts.

Making $70k when your paying $1.5-2k per month because education costs are triple what the “older generation” paid….

I honestly feel that some of the older generation wouldn’t be able to pass the interviews that we have to go through.

I don’t think old farts like the initial poster referenced understand what inflation is, or that most of us have a ton of debt, etc. that’s great we may start at 70k, but if I have to pay $600/ mo for student loans, $1.5k for rent, and so on, that money goes away pretty quick. And spare me the live in a cheaper city garbage - We wouldn’t be making 70k if we did

Younger generation? How old are you? Who is complaining about starting at $70K? What did that position pay when you started? How does it compare it to inflation?

SO MANY QUESTIONS

Maybe we saw our dads bust their butts for the same company for 20 years then, when their position, salary and benefits were finally starting to reflect the work they put in, the company dropped them overnight for cheap new college grads. Looking out for ourselves knowing the company won't isn't entitlement...its wisdom.

Graduated in 08’ and started off at 32k. I would have been in heaven to start at 70k!

I hate to say this but “Ok Boomer” 🤣

If you’re getting paid 70k out of college, I’d complain too lmao. Most can start ~90 now

Im not young and started at 70k more than 10yrs ago. I’d expect the newbies to command more. College costs quite a bit more now than when I went. Why is this entitlement??

Btw- think about how much leaders make and how much their pay has gone up over the last 20 years. Then stop fighting with those of us demanding a greater share and start blaming the people that matter. Decision makers make exponentially more than the average worker, and make decisions every year to widen that gap. It’s inequity, and it’ll continue to rip our world into pieces unless we fight back.

Go back to bed grandpa

Because firms will try and charge 200k for 6 weeks of your time in staff aug while the firm itself provides zero value add to the situation, all while telling you that they can't afford to pay you more than 70k.

There's a reason that everyone at the big firms over the age of 30 is here on a visa - anyone who is willing and able to cut out these expensive, useless middle men will make 2-3x what these firms will pay them.

Kids are coming out of school these days in a mountain of debt because of insane tuition rates (that go up every year), inflation rising, rents prices through the roof, health care costs skyrocketing. And most companies are offering 90k+ so of course they aren’t going to be jazzed about an offer 20k less. What company do you work for? And how old are you that you are so out of touch??

Wonder where OP went

Is it entitlement or do they have an entirely different set of financial circumstances than generations before them? Look at the inflation in the cost of housing in relation to salary compared to their parents generation? Look at the cost of education, food, daycare, etc. You literally cannot get by and afford to live on what we started with 10-15 years ago.