Gen Zs are finally discovering what the rest of us already know, that adulting isn’t easy. Although job prospects for twenty-somethings are plentiful and wages are higher today than they were for previous generations, Gen Zs claim they’re faced with more challenges than their parents and grandparents faced. One TikTok user received over five million views after admitting to making three times the federal minimum wage while struggling to survive. That young man’s parents and grandparents would have been thrilled to earn nearly $3500 per month when first entering the workplace, but in 1976 someone earning three times the federal minimum wage made $1100 per month. With job opportunities and higher pay, why is the average young person struggling to live?
Most Gen Zs have been coddled, and rightly so. While they were growing up school shootings became rampant. In the 1950’s, there were 32 school shootings. Between 2010 and 2019 there were 400. Parents of Gen Zs reacted to the world around them and put their child/children in a bubble. They weren’t allowed to leave the house when the sun rose and return home when it set like we did, they were put on a short leash and, in some cases, were made to wear a tracker. Adding to the problem, most parents of Gen Zs didn’t want their teens to work. They wanted them to focus on school and extracurriculars.
Without knowing what they were doing, parents of Gen Zs did not prepare their children for the reality of adulthood. How can a young person be expected to graduate and successfully enter the workforce without having the basic understanding of hard work and money management? They can’t.