Younger women are practicing radical pay transparency on TikTok

Younger women are practicing radical pay transparency on TikTok

Younger women are practicing radical pay transparency on TikTok, Jessica Rosales, 29, has always been interested in pay transparency. In daily life, talking about what you make is “so taboo, it’s almost like a secret,” she explained. But such secrecy isn’t for her - or her followers on TikTok.

A cleaner in a medical facility in Michigan, Rosales posts videos documenting many aspects of her life, including how she handles her money. Followers love her “realistic paycheck breakdowns,” where she talks about what she’s paid and how she allocates it - credit cards, groceries, mortgage, utilities - breaking it all down for the camera on a cute budgeting worksheet she designed.

Rosales is among a growing contingent of workers on TikTok - largely younger women - shattering the code of silence around pay, which advocates have criticized for worsening U.S. income inequality. Their style is accessible and granular: posting videos of their “payday routines,” baring the details of their net worth and breaking down their weekly budgets line by line.

While older workers may consider talking openly about money verboten, many younger workers are accustomed to seeing people online share everything about work, from daily commutes to their experiences with layoffs. For them, being candid about money seems natural and necessary, said Kristy Nguyen, 23.

“A lot of that shift has to do with the fact that we, as a younger generation, are more open on social media,” said Nguyen, who makes videos about personal finance on TikTok. “We feel like if we’re more open and vulnerable about it, it can make a difference for other people.”

This is also part of a broader shift as pay transparency laws proliferate, requiring companies to provide expected pay ranges in job postings. At least nine states, including New York and California, and several municipalities have adopted such measures, and more are scheduled to take effect next year in Minnesota and Vermont, according to Payscale, a firm that aggregates and analyzes salary data.

Meanwhile, job sites like ZipRecruiter, Indeed and LinkedIn report higher shares of postings with salary ranges, as more companies opt to be clear about salaries whether it’s required of them or not. Advocates say access to pay information empowers workers to negotiate for fairer compensation, although some companies have sought to sidestep regulations by posting jobs with unhelpfully wide salary ranges.