Worker Shares 'Proof' Gen Z 'Must Work Twice as Hard' as Boomers to Survive

A worker took to Reddit on Wednesday to provide "proof" that Generation Z "must work twice as hard" as Baby Boomers to survive.

Posting in Reddit's "Antiwork" forum under the username u/MikeTheBard, a musician, shared a spreadsheet they created, showing how much the overall cost of living has increased since 1972. They said they pulled their data from a variety of sources including the Social Security Administration (SSA) and the Department of Labor (DOL); however, it's important to note that the conclusions drawn from the data are the Redditor's own, not that of an official economic expert or government organization.

Still, the post has amassed over 34,000 upvotes and thousands of comments from frustrated Redditors venting about how costly it's become to survive.

What Experts Have to Say

According to 2018 research from RentCafe, an apartment listing service, millennials spend more on rent by the age of 30 than their parents and grandparents did at the same age, USA Today reported.

"GenX adults spent only 41 percent of their income on rent by age 30 ($82,000, inflation-adjusted) while Baby Boomers spent just 36 percent (about $71,000)," the paper said. Millennials in 2018, meanwhile, were spending 45 percent of their income on rent. And those in Gen Z are expected to pay even more.

"If their income won't keep the same pace with rent growth, the so-called internet generation will be the most rent-burdened in U.S. history," Adrian Rosenberg, communications specialist for RentCafe.com, told USA Today.

A 2019 study also found that by that point, only 44 percent of millennials had surpassed their parents' socioeconomic status "when both were age 30," a stark contrast from previous generations, according to CNN.

"A big part of the American dream is that each generation will do better than the one that preceded it," David Grusky, a sociology professor at Stanford University, told CNN. "It's a pretty fundamental part of what we say this country can deliver and we're not."

Antiwork

In an attempt to illustrate how much "harder" it is for younger generations to survive, u/MikeTheBard said they collected the minimum and average hourly wages, as well as the average housing and college tuition costs from six different years: 1972, 1982, 1992, 2002, 2012 and 2022. Then, based on these figures, u/MikeTheBard said they calculated the number of hours the average person would need to work in order to afford the minimum to average housing and tuition costs.

Based on this math, u/MikeTheBard said they determined that in 1972, for example, a person would only need to work between 32 and 68 hours, depending on wage, to afford the minimum to average rental costs. Those renting in 2012, however, would need to work between 41 and 120 hours, according to his calculations.

"Today, if you're making minimum wage, it takes 183 hours to pay the average rent for the month," they claimed. "And going to college? At minimum wage, you will need to work 1,426 hours to pay for a year of public college. That's 2/3 of a full-time income."

When asked what inspired them to comb through the data and create the spreadsheet, u/MikeTheBard told Newsweek:

"I remember that my grandparents were able to own a house and support three kids on a single blue-collar income. People talk about rising costs, but it always revolves around adjusting the numbers—$X then was equal to $Y now. But that's misleading because there are just so many variables. I wanted to reduce that to the most simplistic metric, and one which is absolutely representative of the antiwork movement—how many hours of your life you need to trade for basic needs like housing."

Redditors React

Again, u/MikeTheBard's figures and claims were not analyzed by experts. Still, Redditors felt the data more or less illustrated the younger generations' current struggle to survive and vented about how costly life has become.

"This is in part why I feel working feels so much worse these days. I go to work and I'm depressed, and I don't even get paid enough to live," u/universalkalea said.

"They are pricing us out of life," u/No_Dirt_4198 wrote.

"Usually don't agree with [many] sentiments on this sub but this is 200 percent spot on. The cards are SO stacked against us," u/LIBORplus300 vented.

Redditor u/Cygnus__A added: "The American dream is dead."

Other Viral Moments

Of course, u/MikeTheBard isn't the first poster from "Antiwork" to make headlines.

On Wednesday, a job candidate went viral after sharing that they recently received a "lowball job offer" from a recruiter who said their current salary was "too high." Another job seeker went viral on Wednesday after posting a screenshot of a "sketchy" email she received that many commenters said was likely an employment scam. And earlier this week, a worker garnered viral support after revealing that her employer is trying to replace her because she called him out on "unethical medical practices."