“Salary Transparent Street”: People Are Revealing How Much They Get Paid And What Job They Do
According to this recent study, most people significantly underestimate what people are earning in similar jobs elsewhere. The researchers argue this holds people back from seeking better paid jobs or higher pay. They also suggest that if workers were more aware of salary disparities, at least 10% of low-paying jobs would simply not be viable at current pay rates.
So one D.C. TikTok content creator named Hannah Williams has set out on a mission to get people to talk openly about their salaries. With two simple questions, “What do you do?” and “How much do you make?”, the Salary Transparent Street project is promoting equal pay through transparent conversations, something that in many workplaces is still seen as a taboo topic.
Williams’s videos amassed millions of views and counting, and it’s obvious how much they have resonated with people. The creator now plans to travel nationwide and ask people in every capital city how much money they make. So follow her on social media to see how it goes!
More info: TikTok | Direct.Me | Twitter | Instagram
TikTok creator Hannah Williams launched the Salary Transparent Street project to get people to talk openly about how much they make for the job they do
Image credits: salarytransparentstreet
Her most popular video gained 13.5M views in just 4 days @salarytransparentstreet Georgetown, Washington, D.C. 📍 We are seeking an official partner and sponsor to help us travel to more cities. Please email us if you support pay transparency, equal pay, and increased diversity. #salarytransparency #paytransparency #salarytransparentstreet #moneytok #careertok #washingtondc #georgetown #howmuchdoyoumake ♬ original sound - Salary Transparent Street
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You know sometimes it gets depressing when you find out how underpaid science fields are
Bored Panda reached out to Hannah Williams, a 25-year-old data analyst working in the D.C. metro area who is the creator of this much-needed and wonderful project called Salary Transparent Street. “I started posting about my unique career journey on TikTok in February, and one of my videos with my own personal salary transparency (I job-hopped 5 jobs over 2.5 years) went viral. My followers told me they loved my transparency, and I wanted to encourage more people to be transparent as well,” she said.
Only $15? For SAVING lives? But then again a human life is priceless, so I guess they could never be paid enough
Williams said that she has always been very open and upfront about her salary, “but most people aren't.” She explained: “By talking with my community on my personal TikTok (@stocksandsquats), I heard people say that they thought discussing pay was illegal (myth!), and a lot didn't know how to negotiate their salaries or conduct market research. They realized they were being underpaid!”
I'm in grad school right now and I am working for the Washington Capitals.
Williams argues that “the 'taboo' and gatekeeping surrounding pay transparency is actually detrimental to most of us, and only benefits corporations who can get away with paying people less than they're due.” Therefore, her key message is to encourage people to break through that 'taboo' barrier and have these open conversations with their friends, colleagues, and family.
“Even though many people feel embarrassed or shy about their pay, we have to realize that our salaries say nothing about our value, our intelligence, or who we are as human beings, and talking about it helps a lot of people, combats the gender pay gap, improves diversity, and minimizes discrimination opportunities in organizations.”
I am a solo IT for 6 location and almost 300 people... i make 35k...
When asked how people react to her invitation to share their salaries publicly, Williams said that surprisingly, many people are open to discussing their salaries. “Many people also recognize us now because we went viral, so I'm certain that has helped sway people who initially wouldn't have spoken with us. The majority of people who don't want to talk to us are either older, or may work in higher or lower paying jobs (I think this goes back to the feeling of embarrassment that we need to combat!).”
Williams believes that people don't like talking about their salaries because they're worried they'll be judged, and that people will associate their intelligence, value, or character with their pay. “This is incorrect! Our salaries say nothing about who we are, and the more open we are about our pay, the better we can combat this thinking.”
According to the creator of Salary Transparent Street, pay transparency is incredibly important. “If we don't know what people make in similar job fields, how are we supposed to benchmark what our salaries should be? Having these open conversations helps people better understand what they should be asking for from their employers, so that they don't get taken advantage of because that information isn't being discussed,” she said.
“Women and POC are frequently underpaid because of these reasons, and also because of higher instances of discrimination they face in the hiring process. Providing more reputable salary benchmarks for everyone to see will help reduce instances like this,” Williams told Bored Panda.
Right now, Williams will be embarking on a nationwide Salary Transparent Street tour soon and she will film the series in every single capital city across the country. “I think this series can have an enormous positive impact with people personally, but also within our society and how we view conversations surrounding pay. If I can encourage a single person to start having these conversations and help their peers, then I've succeeded in my mission (but I hope many more will feel this way, too!).”
People revealing their wages have started a discussion in the comments
Try doing this again at a Dollar General instead of an upscale shopping area.
You'll get some very high salaries outside of a place like that. Frugality knows no income bracket.
Depends on which Dollar General there are enough of those that you could get one in a well off community and get about the same answers as these, but you go to the one that's close to a poorer neighborhood your gonna get mostly 20-30k if you base on a 'salary'(no overtime no bonuses) but the moment you say what they made 'last'(last full year of employment) it will jump to 30k-40k same if you start the scale at 10k-20k the 60 hour a week or side jobs will make it 20k-30k and anyone else you interview below those will say they are homeless. And Dollar General isn't cheap it is usually the 'closest store'(that sales food and isn't a gas station) if you are going there for cheap you sure are getting it as most of their products that could be considered cheap is made in China for Pennies.
My last job in the UK was £25k and I thought I was doing really well! (About $33k) My new job pays around £30-40k ($38-$51k) dependent on how many hours I want to put in and I feel like I'm rolling in money... how come US salaries are all so high?
It's all relative. I don't know where in UK you are but you have to compare your salary to your expenses. In NY making 100k a year is a minimum wage because after taxes (fed, state and city) and your 4k a month rent you barely have enough to eat.
Most people in NY do not make 100k.
This is exactly why I was asking. I genuinely didn't know
Lets not forget to factor in the human element. Not everyone is honest. Some may have inflated their salaries when asked so they dont look "broke" or unsuccessful. People do all the time. The average salary in the US is around $55K a year...so some of these folks are most likely simply being dishonest.
How much is your rent and how much do you pay in taxes? Also, in the US many people have to buy their own insurance, which can be several thousand a month.
Mortgage is around £250 and taxes just go out of my pay as National Insurance so I don't even notice, something like 20% after the first £12.5k I take home about £1200 a month. It was a genuine question. I didn't know why, so I asked. Call me naive - fine - it's a part of being ASD
Nobody's calling you naive -- in fact, I think your question sparked a really interesting discussion. It sounds like cost of living is really low in the UK?Germs says they're paying about £779.26 for a old, tiny apartment in a "cheap" city, and that's not including power, phone, internet, etc. I don't think anyone in the US would be able to save up money for a house if they were taking home $1550 a month, and a £250 mortgage works out to about $320 -- nothing's that cheap even in the tiny little town my mom lives in.
Jeez, that's cheap even for the Philippines 😂 I'm jealous now...
Mortgage is 250 pounds?? Wow! What kind of home do you live in? 20 years ago I was living in a 2 bedroom apartment, splitting the $850 rent with a roommate.
2 bed flat. But it sounds like living costs in many UK areas are much cheaper than the US counterparts. The rent in a similar property would have been £750
I appreciate you asking. Communication is so important. :) Life is expensive in the US. Housing and health insurance alone are thousands of dollars each month. :-(
When I was offered a 32k job in London I thought I was doing really well. Then I realized I couldn't even afford to use heating in my apartment. I am not reckless with money, I just had a small child in nursery.
This is two specific cities that both have a high cost of living. The US is a big country, cost of living can vary widely.
Thank you. I guess I didn't think about that - my costs would be vastly different to a person living in London.
One thing I'm curious about with UK (and any other non-US Pandas that wish to chime in), how is retirement handled there? You hear a lot of us in the US talking about how much we pay for our healthcare and student loans. Another large factor in my budget is retirement savings. We have a pension system called Social Security, but it doesn't pay enough to live on. 6.2% of our paycheck is withheld to contribute to it, another few percent for Medicare. The same amount comes from the employer. Different rules apply for high incomes, but this is how it is for most people. Self employed people are on the hook for the whole 15.4%. Despite paying all this, the amount we will receive when we are older is not enough to live on, especially since Medicare doesn't cover 100% of our medical and nothing for general old age care. Many of us contribute to separate retirement plans (401K, IRA) which offer tax-deferred savings. All in all, about a quarter of my gross pay goes into retirement savings.
Here 1.5% goes toward retirement, and obviously the more you earn and longer you keep working after when you could start taking pension, the more you will get. I know for those who have worked pretty much minimum wage jobs their whole life the pension is too little, especially if they have only rented their whole life so they dont have their own paid place and have to keep paying rent. But usually you can live with it, and the healthcare is more reasonable so you dont burn all your money on that in the years you probably need most care.
Somewhat realistic number would be that the pension will be about 60% of your salary. So if you have everything paid off before you reach retirement age, you should be fine.. but everything keeps getting more expensive so who knows.
Canada is similar in terms of retirement savings, I would say. I'm self-employed and have to pay both employer and employee portions of Canada Pension Plan contributions. It's not so bad, and we also have the RRSP and TFSA for retirement savings (the former is tax deferred and the latter is taxed up front but all gains are tax-free forever and you can contribute $6000 a year). I would say CPP, like Social Security, is not enough to live on. I can't easily find an answer to how much I'm paying into it per year.
I'm not sure about this comparison but these answers might be more akin to people that live in London. They're much higher than normal. Also in the US we say how much we make before taxes are taken out, not sure if that makes a difference. Where I live, you can cut those numbers by1/2 to 2/3rds if you want an average. Here $12 an hour is minimum. $15 an hour is survival. $18 is decent and $20+ is generally good. Some people make a much higher amount.
That area is super expensive. We also pay a pretty decent tax rate. Dc housing is in the millions. We have brutal health care cost
this is not typical for the southern US. Believe me.... we make much less.
You know jn thr US you have to pay for everything out of pocket? Not like there are many subsidised services they can choose from
DC in front of an upscale shopping area, this is not normal for the US.
This is a VERY selected list.
Try doing this again at a Dollar General instead of an upscale shopping area.
You'll get some very high salaries outside of a place like that. Frugality knows no income bracket.
Depends on which Dollar General there are enough of those that you could get one in a well off community and get about the same answers as these, but you go to the one that's close to a poorer neighborhood your gonna get mostly 20-30k if you base on a 'salary'(no overtime no bonuses) but the moment you say what they made 'last'(last full year of employment) it will jump to 30k-40k same if you start the scale at 10k-20k the 60 hour a week or side jobs will make it 20k-30k and anyone else you interview below those will say they are homeless. And Dollar General isn't cheap it is usually the 'closest store'(that sales food and isn't a gas station) if you are going there for cheap you sure are getting it as most of their products that could be considered cheap is made in China for Pennies.
My last job in the UK was £25k and I thought I was doing really well! (About $33k) My new job pays around £30-40k ($38-$51k) dependent on how many hours I want to put in and I feel like I'm rolling in money... how come US salaries are all so high?
It's all relative. I don't know where in UK you are but you have to compare your salary to your expenses. In NY making 100k a year is a minimum wage because after taxes (fed, state and city) and your 4k a month rent you barely have enough to eat.
Most people in NY do not make 100k.
This is exactly why I was asking. I genuinely didn't know
Lets not forget to factor in the human element. Not everyone is honest. Some may have inflated their salaries when asked so they dont look "broke" or unsuccessful. People do all the time. The average salary in the US is around $55K a year...so some of these folks are most likely simply being dishonest.
How much is your rent and how much do you pay in taxes? Also, in the US many people have to buy their own insurance, which can be several thousand a month.
Mortgage is around £250 and taxes just go out of my pay as National Insurance so I don't even notice, something like 20% after the first £12.5k I take home about £1200 a month. It was a genuine question. I didn't know why, so I asked. Call me naive - fine - it's a part of being ASD
Nobody's calling you naive -- in fact, I think your question sparked a really interesting discussion. It sounds like cost of living is really low in the UK?Germs says they're paying about £779.26 for a old, tiny apartment in a "cheap" city, and that's not including power, phone, internet, etc. I don't think anyone in the US would be able to save up money for a house if they were taking home $1550 a month, and a £250 mortgage works out to about $320 -- nothing's that cheap even in the tiny little town my mom lives in.
Jeez, that's cheap even for the Philippines 😂 I'm jealous now...
Mortgage is 250 pounds?? Wow! What kind of home do you live in? 20 years ago I was living in a 2 bedroom apartment, splitting the $850 rent with a roommate.
2 bed flat. But it sounds like living costs in many UK areas are much cheaper than the US counterparts. The rent in a similar property would have been £750
I appreciate you asking. Communication is so important. :) Life is expensive in the US. Housing and health insurance alone are thousands of dollars each month. :-(
When I was offered a 32k job in London I thought I was doing really well. Then I realized I couldn't even afford to use heating in my apartment. I am not reckless with money, I just had a small child in nursery.
This is two specific cities that both have a high cost of living. The US is a big country, cost of living can vary widely.
Thank you. I guess I didn't think about that - my costs would be vastly different to a person living in London.
One thing I'm curious about with UK (and any other non-US Pandas that wish to chime in), how is retirement handled there? You hear a lot of us in the US talking about how much we pay for our healthcare and student loans. Another large factor in my budget is retirement savings. We have a pension system called Social Security, but it doesn't pay enough to live on. 6.2% of our paycheck is withheld to contribute to it, another few percent for Medicare. The same amount comes from the employer. Different rules apply for high incomes, but this is how it is for most people. Self employed people are on the hook for the whole 15.4%. Despite paying all this, the amount we will receive when we are older is not enough to live on, especially since Medicare doesn't cover 100% of our medical and nothing for general old age care. Many of us contribute to separate retirement plans (401K, IRA) which offer tax-deferred savings. All in all, about a quarter of my gross pay goes into retirement savings.
Here 1.5% goes toward retirement, and obviously the more you earn and longer you keep working after when you could start taking pension, the more you will get. I know for those who have worked pretty much minimum wage jobs their whole life the pension is too little, especially if they have only rented their whole life so they dont have their own paid place and have to keep paying rent. But usually you can live with it, and the healthcare is more reasonable so you dont burn all your money on that in the years you probably need most care.
Somewhat realistic number would be that the pension will be about 60% of your salary. So if you have everything paid off before you reach retirement age, you should be fine.. but everything keeps getting more expensive so who knows.
Canada is similar in terms of retirement savings, I would say. I'm self-employed and have to pay both employer and employee portions of Canada Pension Plan contributions. It's not so bad, and we also have the RRSP and TFSA for retirement savings (the former is tax deferred and the latter is taxed up front but all gains are tax-free forever and you can contribute $6000 a year). I would say CPP, like Social Security, is not enough to live on. I can't easily find an answer to how much I'm paying into it per year.
I'm not sure about this comparison but these answers might be more akin to people that live in London. They're much higher than normal. Also in the US we say how much we make before taxes are taken out, not sure if that makes a difference. Where I live, you can cut those numbers by1/2 to 2/3rds if you want an average. Here $12 an hour is minimum. $15 an hour is survival. $18 is decent and $20+ is generally good. Some people make a much higher amount.
That area is super expensive. We also pay a pretty decent tax rate. Dc housing is in the millions. We have brutal health care cost
this is not typical for the southern US. Believe me.... we make much less.
You know jn thr US you have to pay for everything out of pocket? Not like there are many subsidised services they can choose from
DC in front of an upscale shopping area, this is not normal for the US.
This is a VERY selected list.