At 22, during my first real media job – I won’t name names – I remember being so monumentally stressed and broke that I began rapidly losing weight. I had neither the time, nor money, to eat properly, and days would consist of mainlining a 50p can of Asda baked beans so that I could bang out my three stories a day, before crashing out. Looking back, I wish I’d known then what I know now, which is this: they needed me more than I needed them. I should have been on at least double my wage. And I should have spoken out about the miserable working conditions (and zero paid annual leave). Had it been 2023, when the average UK rent is £1,243 a month, there’s no way I’d have been able to afford that job to begin with.
With the above in mind, it fills me with great relief to know that young people today are being more assertive in the workplace – not out of entitlement, but pure necessity: about half of UK gen Zs and millennials worry that their monthly income won’t cover all their expenses – worries that definitely aren’t unfounded. About 80% of those aged 18 to 24 are considering finding new work, with better pay, according to LinkedIn. Meanwhile, according to Deloitte, many gen Zs prioritise work-life balance as their top consideration when selecting an employer. All of this is important: with burnout on the rise globally, workers’ wellbeing ought to be prioritised without question.
That said, many are now saying that gen Z asking for better pay is *checks notes* “propping up inflation”, with a recent Telegraph piece claiming that young people are “making the most of a never-ending war for top talent to bag multiple pay rises and outlandish perks”. What these outlandish perks are we’ll never know – puppies at work? Massages on demand? But apparently the reason a bag of wilted spinach at your local supermarket is now £2 is because some plucky 23-year-old just asked for a bit more money to help cover the £300pcm rent increase on their decomposing bedroom slash office space slash living room in Sydenham. Last month, the Bank of England governor, Andrew Bailey, and the chancellor, Jeremy Hunt, even told delegates at the annual Mansion House dinner – yes, “Mansion House dinner” – that wage restraint was needed to curb high inflation. Essentially, young people should just suck it up. Maybe they should try working night shifts as well? Who needs sleep in 2023, really?
Randomly blaming young people for being unable to afford a basic standard of living is nothing new. Only a few years ago millennials were being told off for not being able to afford houses because they were too busy consuming endless avocado toast, or slobbing out and watching Netflix. Back in the 1990s, it was gen X twentysomethings who were being written off as disaffected slackers, and I’m sure boomers themselves have a few stories about being called good-for-nothing layabouts and shirkers. The difference is that, right now, the UK faces the biggest fall in living standards on record. It’s not “entitled” to ask for the bare minimum in order to stay afloat.
It’s also worth pointing out here that it’s not healthy or noble to expect everybody to live in miserable, punishing conditions. There’s a tendency in the UK to believe that to ask for anything above the “essential” (more than a roof over your head, food that isn’t just tinned tomatoes and pasta) is a sign of wanton privilege. But isn’t that a bleak way of approaching life, and the lives of others? Isn’t it normal to want more for yourself than just endless emails and a salary that barely covers your rent, until retirement, then death? What about being able to afford a few pleasures, like a night out, or a delicious restaurant meal with friends, or a trip to the cinema? It’s a sorry state of affairs that such things are now viewed as precious luxuries, only available to those who work multiple side hustles and therefore earn the right to joy.
Until better protections are put in place for young people across the board – rent freezes and eviction bans, for example, or adequate support for those unable to afford their rising utility bills – expecting gen Zs to accept the cards they’ve been dealt isn’t just absurd, it’s futile, and cruel.
Daisy Jones is a writer and author of All the Things She Said
