One thing is certain: The amount of money Americans say makes you financially comfortable changes depending on where you live.

The amount varies by almost $1 million between cities, according to an analysis of 13 major U.S. metropolitan areas by financial services company Charles Schwab.

Here’s a look at the net worth residents of each city say you need to be considered financially comfortable in 2023, ranked by net worth thresholds:

1. San Francisco: $1.7 million
2. Southern California (includes Los Angeles and San Diego): $1.5 million
3. New York City: $1.2 million
4. Seattle: $1 million
5. Washington, D.C.: $1 million
6. Boston: $932,000
7. Dallas: $820,000
8. Chicago: $817,000
9. Atlanta: $729,000
10. Denver: $710,000
11. Phoenix: $653,000
12. Houston: $606,000

Net worth is defined as the total value of assets a person or corporation owns, minus the liabilities they owe.

While the amounts on this list are high, keep in mind that most cities listed also have a relatively high cost of living. In many, the cost of living is 50% or more above the U.S. average, according an analysis by personal finance website Kiplinger.

A lot of that has to do with housing costs. San Francisco, New York and Los Angeles are some of the most expensive places to live in the country. While the median home price in the U.S. overall is currently $436,800, the median in these cities sits closer to $1 million, according to Redfin data.

It seems likely not many people actually reach these thresholds, either, since the overall U.S. median household net worth is $121,700, according to the Federal Reserve’s most recent data. 

For the purposes of the study, feeling financially comfortable is considered different from feeling rich. When survey respondents were asked how much they needed money to feel wealthy, the numbers were much higher. They ranged from $2.5 million in Denver to $4.7 million in San Francisco — the highest amount of all cities listed.

The online survey was conducted in March, with a sample of 500 to 750 local residents for each metropolitan area, between the ages of 21 and 75.

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The real purchasing power of a $250,000 salary depends on a city’s overall economy, taxes and cost of living. Across the United States, $250,000 is worth as much as $203,664 in Memphis, Tennessee, but as little as $83,000 in New York City. 

That’s according to a recent report by SmartAsset, which investigated where high earners lose the most to taxes and cost of living. The study compares the after-tax income in 76 of the largest U.S. cities and adjusts the figures for the cost of living.

The data was compiled using SmartAsset’s paycheck calculator, which calculates take-home pay after taking into account local, state and federal taxes. Cost of living expenses include housing, groceries, utilities, transportation and other goods and services. 

For the privileged few earning $250,000 per year, here are the seven cities where your money has the least purchasing power, as well as how much it’s actually worth. 

1. New York: $82,421
2. Honolulu: $82,672
3. San Francisco: $82,776
4. Los Angeles: $101,635
5. Long Beach, California: $101,635
6. Washington, D.C.: $101,865
7. San Diego: $105,151

Unsurprisingly, $250,000 goes the least far in cities such as New York and Washington, D.C., due to the high costs of living. In New York, the average monthly rent for a studio apartment is $3,500, according to data from RentHop.

In Washington, D.C., the average monthly rent for a studio apartment is also high, at just over $2,300, according to data from RentHop. Last year, the nation’s capital ranked as the third-most expensive major U.S. city based on monthly household spending. New York ranked No. 5.

Several cities in California also make the cut for places where $250,000 has the least purchasing power, largely due to the state’s high income tax. In San Francisco, for example, residents are taxed roughly six percentage points more in taxes at $250,000 salaries, as compared with a $100,000 salary, SmartAsset reports.

On top of that, the cost of living in San Francisco is 82.8% higher than the national average, according to the study. Similarly, Long Beach, California, professionals are taxed at a rate of 38%, with a cost of living 52.5% higher than the national average.

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But even if you have that much in the bank, it might not be enough to be considered rich in certain places, the survey found.

In San Francisco, you need a net worth of $4.7 million to be considered wealthy. That’s down from $5.2 million since last year’s survey, but still well above the U.S. median household net worth of $121,700, according to the Federal Reserve’s most recent data.

San Francisco had the highest total in the survey, which examined 12 of the biggest metropolitan areas in the country, covering 13 major cities. Here’s the net worth you need to be considered wealthy in various places across the U.S.

1. San Francisco: $4.7 million
2. New York City: $3.3 million
3. Southern California (includes Los Angeles and San Diego): $3.5 million
4. Seattle: $3.1 million
5. Washington, D.C.: $3 million
6. Chicago: $2.3 million
7. Houston: $2.1 million
8. Boston: $2.9 million
9. Dallas: $2.3 million
10. Atlanta: $2.3 million
11. Phoenix: $2.4 million
12. Denver: $2.5 million

Net worth is a measure of the value of the assets a person or corporation owns, minus the liabilities they owe.

Despite these lofty numbers, 48% of Americans say they feel wealthy. However, of those that do, their average net worth is $560,000.

Perhaps relatedly, 7 out of 10 Americans polled say wealth is more about not stressing over money, rather than net worth. 

Wealth is also a subjective term. Nearly two thirds of survey respondents say enjoying relationships with loved ones better describes what wealth means to them, rather than having a lot of money. And nearly 66% of respondents say having time is more important than having money.

The online survey was conducted in March, with a sample of 500 to 750 local residents for each metropolitan area, between the ages of 21 and 75.

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Unions for service workers at Walt Disney World reached a tentative deal with the company on Thursday that would raise the starting minimum wage from $15 to $18 an hour in a pact that could set the basement for starting pay throughout central Florida’s sprawling tourism industry.

Disney World service workers who are in the six unions that make up the Service Trades Council Union coalition planned to vote next Wednesday on the contract proposal after rejecting an earlier offer that fell short of the $18 hourly minimum wage last month. The agreement covers around 45,000 service workers at the Disney theme park resort outside Orlando. Workers could see their hourly wages rise between $5.50 and $8.60 by the end of the five-year contract if it’s approved, union leaders said.

“Securing an $18 minimum hourly rate this year, increasing the overall economic value of Disney’s original offer, and ensuring full back pay for every worker are the priorities union members were determined to fight for,” said Matt Hollis, head of the coalition of unions. “Today, we won that fight.”

Disney officials said they planned to release a statement later Thursday.

The contract with the service workers covers the costumed performers who perform as Mickey Mouse and other Disney characters, bus drivers, culinary workers, lifeguards, theatrical workers and hotel housekeepers, representing more than half of the 70,000-plus workforce at Disney World. The contract approved five years ago made Disney the first major employer in central Florida to agree to a minimum hourly wage of $15, setting the trend for other workers in the region dominated by hospitality jobs.

The contract proposal with the largest group of workers at the resort comes at a precarious time for Disney World. Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis and the GOP-controlled Florida Legislature recently passed legislation giving the Republican governor the power to appoint the governing board of the district that oversees government services for the 27,000-acre (11,000-hectare) resort. The board previously had been controlled by Disney.

The takeover of the Disney district began last year when the entertainment giant, facing intense pressure, publicly opposed the so-called “Don’t Say Gay” legislation, which bars instruction on sexual orientation and gender identity in kindergarten through third grade and lessons deemed not age-appropriate.

DeSantis has built a national reputation as a culture warrior ahead of an expected GOP presidential run.

Unions for service workers at Walt Disney World reached a tentative deal with the company on Thursday that would raise the starting minimum wage from $15 to $18 an hour in a pact that could set the basement for starting pay throughout central Florida’s sprawling tourism industry.

Disney World service workers who are in the six unions that make up the Service Trades Council Union coalition planned to vote next Wednesday on the contract proposal after rejecting an earlier offer that fell short of the $18 hourly minimum wage last month. The agreement covers around 45,000 service workers at the Disney theme park resort outside Orlando. Workers could see their hourly wages rise between $5.50 and $8.60 by the end of the five-year contract if it’s approved, union leaders said.

“Securing an $18 minimum hourly rate this year, increasing the overall economic value of Disney’s original offer, and ensuring full back pay for every worker are the priorities union members were determined to fight for,” said Matt Hollis, head of the coalition of unions. “Today, we won that fight.”

Disney officials said they planned to release a statement later Thursday.

The contract with the service workers covers the costumed performers who perform as Mickey Mouse and other Disney characters, bus drivers, culinary workers, lifeguards, theatrical workers and hotel housekeepers, representing more than half of the 70,000-plus workforce at Disney World. The contract approved five years ago made Disney the first major employer in central Florida to agree to a minimum hourly wage of $15, setting the trend for other workers in the region dominated by hospitality jobs.

The contract proposal with the largest group of workers at the resort comes at a precarious time for Disney World. Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis and the GOP-controlled Florida Legislature recently passed legislation giving the Republican governor the power to appoint the governing board of the district that oversees government services for the 27,000-acre (11,000-hectare) resort. The board previously had been controlled by Disney.

The takeover of the Disney district began last year when the entertainment giant, facing intense pressure, publicly opposed the so-called “Don’t Say Gay” legislation, which bars instruction on sexual orientation and gender identity in kindergarten through third grade and lessons deemed not age-appropriate.

DeSantis has built a national reputation as a culture warrior ahead of an expected GOP presidential run.

The Detroit automaker wouldn’t say how many workers it is targeting, but confirmed that the move is aimed at accelerating attrition to meet a previously announced goal of $2 billion in cost cuts by the end of next year. GM has about 58,000 salaried workers in the U.S.

The company says the offers also are designed to avoid any possible firings at a later date.

Offers will go to white-collar workers with at least five years of service, and global executives with who have been with the company at least two years.

U.S. salaried workers are being offered one month of pay for every year of service, up to 12 months. They’ll also be offered health COBRA health care and part of the bonuses they would receive this year.

The decision to offer buyouts comes at an uncertain time for the auto industry, which is in the midst of a transition from internal combustion to electric vehicles. GM has a goal of selling only electric passenger vehicles by 2035.

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The switch is requiring more research and development spending on both types of vehicles, as well as huge capital outlays for battery factories and updating assembly plants, as well as spending to get scarce metals needed for EVs.

The cuts also are being made to prepare for any potential economic downturn or recession, Chief Financial Officer Paul Jacobson told an analyst conference in February.

Although GM’s auto sales remain strong, the company is seeing prices for its vehicles starting to ease, he said. “We want to be cautious because we don’t want to ignore the macro signs that are out there, because I don’t want to be up here a year from now saying, ah, we missed it,” Jacobson told the Wolfe Research conference. “

The cost cuts were announced when GM released fourth-quarter earnings in January, when Jacobson said they would be accomplished in part by filling only strategically important jobs vacated due to attrition.

The company said Thursday that it also will cut costs by reducing the complexity of its vehicles and more sharing of components between both internal combustion and electric models. GM plans to cut discretionary spending companywide and focus on growth initiatives to make benefits come faster.

Employees who want to take the buyouts have to sign up by March 24, and those who are approved for the packages have to leave the company by June 30.

Apple Inc. said in a regulatory filing late Thursday that Cook’s target total compensation is $49 million for 2023, with a $3 million salary, $6 million cash incentive and $40 million in equity awards.

Last March the Cupertino, California, company conducted an advisory shareholder vote on executive pay with 6.21 billion shares voting in favor of the executive pay package and 3.44 billion against. There were also abstentions and broker non-votes.

Apple said its compensation committee took into account shareholder feedback, the company’s performance and a recommendation from Cook, who was promoted to CEO in 2011, to adjust his compensation in light of the feedback received.

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Apple said last year it sought feedback from shareholders about compensation and it received “overwhelming support for Mr. Cook’s exceptional leadership and the unprecedented value he has delivered for shareholders….Those shareholders we spoke with that did not support our 2022 Say on Pay proposal consistently cited the size and structure of the 2021 and 2022 equity awards granted to Mr. Cook as the primary reason for their voting decision,” the company said.

Cook has received a $3 million base salary for the past three years, but his total compensation — which includes the restricted awards — jumped from $14.8 million in 2020 to $98.7 million in 2021 and $99.4 million in 2022.

Apple said Cook supported the changes to his compensation.

The company plans to position Cook’s annual target compensation between the 80th and 90th percentiles relative to its primary peer group for future years, according to the filing.

The company will hold its annual meeting March 10.

In New York City, minimum wage earners would need to work 111 hours to afford to rent a one-bedroom.

United Way used data from the National Low Income Housing Coalition to calculate the number of hours a minimum wage worker would need to put in each week in order to afford rent in the 50 biggest U.S. cities.

There are only two cities on the list where a worker earning minimum wage can afford to work less than 50 hours a week: Tucson, Arizona, and Buffalo, New York.

Here’s a look at how many hours a minimum wage worker needs to clock to afford a one-bedroom rental in the 10 largest U.S. cities, and the minimum wage in each respective city: 

New York City

Hours required: 111

Minimum wage: $15

Los Angeles

Hours required: 84

Minimum wage: $15.96

Chicago

Hours required: 112

Minimum wage: $15.40

Houston

Hours required: 104

Minimum wage: $7.25

Phoenix

Hours required: 65

Minimum wage: $12.80

Philadelphia

Hours required: 110

Minimum wage: $7.25

San Antonio, Texas

Hours required: 97

Minimum wage: $7.25

San Diego

Hours required: 90

Minimum wage: $15

Dallas

Hours required: 120

Minimum wage: $7.25

San Jose, California

Hours required: 141

Minimum wage: $16.20

Finding affordable housing was difficult for many even before the Covid-19 pandemic hit. However, the onset of the pandemic made these issues even more stark.

“By August 2020, as many as 12 million households were at risk of losing their homes if the government didn’t act,” NLIHC President and CEO Diane Yentel tells CNBC Make It. “Many were among those already struggling to pay rent when the pandemic brought sudden job losses, reduced work hours and higher costs for health care, child care and the internet.”

There were many emergency measures put in place to mitigate the housing crisis during the beginning of the pandemic. But as these temporary solutions expired, the number of affordable rental homes available has not kept up with demand.

“Last year, the cost of rent rose an unprecedented 14% nationally, with some cities seeing rent increases as high as 40%,” Yentel says. “These price increases affect renters of all incomes but threaten the lowest-income renters most.” 

In fact, NLIHC data shows that for every 10 low-income households, less than four homes are both affordable and available, Yentel says.

“As a result of the shortage, nearly 10 million of the lowest-income renter households pay at least half of their limited incomes to keep a roof over their heads,” Yentel says.

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The “Great Resignation,” also known as the “Great Reshuffle,” has many Americans at least considering a career move.

But increasingly, job hopping may be more necessary than voluntary as the recent spike in inflation puts households under financial stress.

While wage growth is high by historical standards, it isn’t keeping up with the increased cost of living, which is rising at the fastest annual pace in about four decades.

Now, two-thirds of American workers said their pay is not adequate to cover the rising cost of inflation, according to a report by Credit Karma, which polled more than 2,000 adults in February.

Roughly 62% of the U.S. population is living paycheck to paycheck, a separate survey by LendingClub found.

Even the wealthiest Americans are having a harder time getting by. Half of workers earning more than $100,000 said they have little to nothing left over at the end of the month, according to LendingClub's poll of 3,250 adults.

"With inflation hitting even the wealthiest Americans' pocketbooks, the ranks of paycheck-to-paycheck Americans continues to swell," said Anuj Nayar, LendingClub's financial health officer.

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Most of the workers who quit last year said low pay was the top reason they left, along with no opportunities for advancement and feeling disrespected at work, according to a recent report by the Pew Research Center.

Low- to moderate-income workers, in particular, have suffered financially, said Juliana Horowitz, one of the authors of the report, "and that could help explain why people are looking for higher pay."

Those who now have a new position are more likely to say their current job has better pay, increased opportunities for advancement and greater work-life balance and flexibility, the report also found.

Job hopping is typically considered the best bet for a big salary bump. 

Wage gains for people who switched jobs have outpaced those for people who have stayed at one employer since 2011, according to the Atlanta Federal Reserve Bank's wage growth tracker, based on data from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics.

In recent months, the gap between job switchers and stayers has only become greater.

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In addition, they are at pay parity in six metro areas. To be sure, their pay still lags men’s in 228 locations. Yet, the news is encouraging, said Richard Fry, a senior researcher at Pew, which analyzed Census Bureau data from 2015 to 2019.

Nationally, women under 30 who work full time, year-round earn about 93% of what their male peers earn. In 2000, it was 88%, he said.

“One of the reasons the pay gap has narrowed is the well-known fact that young women are substantially outpacing young men in completing college,” Fry pointed out.

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“They have an education advantage.”

In the Washington, D.C., and New York metro areas, for instance, young women earn 102% of what young men earn when taking into account median annual earnings for full-time, year-round workers. In D.C., 60% of women under 30 have at least a bachelor’s degree, compared with 45% of young men, Fry noted. In the New York area, 59% of young women had at least a bachelor’s, compared with 43% of young men, he said.

It’s not just about education, however. There are also different occupational and industrial opportunities, depending on the area, Fry said. For instance, the area with the largest gender pay gap, where young women make 67% of their male peers, is Elkhart-Goshen, Indiana. It has a lot of manufacturing and is known as the “RV capital of the world,” thanks to its share of global recreational vehicle production.

“The fact that the gap seems to have narrowed or closed in the major American cities is certainly cause for some celebration,” said Gloria Blackwell, CEO of the American Association of University Women, which has long examined gender pay disparities

“The major cities obviously represent the exceptions and not the rules,” she added. “A pay gap still exists with the majority of women in the country.”

Where women under 30 earn more

Here are the metro areas where women under 30 outearn their male peers, according to Pew.

1. Wenatchee, Washington
2. Morgantown, West Virginia
3. Barnstable Town, Massachusetts
4. Gainesville, Florida
5. Naples-Immokalee-Marco Island, Florida
6. San Diego-Carlsbad, California
7. Yuba City, California
8. New York-Newark-Jersey City (New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania)
9. Washington, Arlington-Alexandria (D.C., Virginia, Maryland, West Virginia)
10. San Angelo, Texas
11. Champaign-Urbana, Illinois
12. Lebanon, Pennsylvania
13. Iowa City, Iowa
14. Sacramento-Roseville-Arden-Arcade, California
15. Santa Maria-Santa Barbara, California
16. Winston-Salem, North Carolina

Where there is pay parity

1. Flagstaff, Arizona
2. Los Angeles-Long Beach-Anaheim, California
3. Oxnard-Thousand Oaks-Ventura, California
4. Richmond, Virginia
5. San Luis Obispo-Paso Robles-Arroyo Grande, California
6. Urban Honolulu, Hawaii

National gender pay gap

To be sure, on a national level, women overall made 83 cents for every $1 earned by men in 2020, according to the U.S. Census Bureau. That’s up from 82 cents in 2019.

Yet the 1-cent closing of the gender pay gap isn’t a true reflection of what’s happening now, said Ruth Thomas, pay equity analyst at compensation management firm Payscale.

That’s because so many women in low-paying fields lost their jobs during the Covid-19 pandemic, she said.

“The average pay of women has gone up, because those low-wage women have left,” Thomas said. “That has effectively closed the pay gap, but it’s like a false closing of the pay gap.”

Payscale released its own gender pay gap estimate of 82 cents for women to every dollar a man earns. It was culled from the more 6 million profiles of pay data on its website, which is slightly weighted toward higher-educated people.

Thomas believes it may take many years to realize the full impact of the pandemic, but believes there’s a likelihood the gender pay gap will get worse in the next year.

Hope for the future

Despite the concern over the current state of affairs and the potential impact of the pandemic on women’s wages, experts have some hope for the future.

States are focusing on pay equity and pay transparency, as are companies. Two-thirds of employers plan to address pay equity this year, a February survey by Payscale found.

“There are so many reasons why employers need to start tackling the pay gaps in their organization,” Thomas said. “This will start to gain momentum, and I’m sure we’ll see a lot of positive activity over the next two to three years.”

Women have a front-seat view to the changes, which can also make them more empowered.

“As younger women become more aware, they’re stepping into the workplace more with that knowledge,” Blackwell said.

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From gas to groceries, soaring prices are straining households across the board.

More than three-quarters of working Americans said inflation has impacted their finances over the past year, according to a report by Salary Finance.

While wage growth is high by historical standards, it isn’t keeping up with the increased cost of living, which is rising at the fastest annual pace in about four decades.

When wages increase at a slower pace than inflation, paychecks won’t stretch as far.

Now, workers are running out of money faster, Salary Finance found.

Roughly 20% of employees regularly run out of money between paychecks, up from 15% last year, according to the survey of more than 3,000 working adults in February.

As a result, about one-quarter of those polled said it’s harder to afford necessary expenses and one-third are unable to build savings, issues that are particularly problematic for low-to-moderate income workers.

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Low earners funnel a bigger share of their budgets to transportation costs and other staples, like food and energy, relative to wealthier households, data show.

Further, people with $50,000 or less in annual income already have thinner margins between the money they take home and what they spend, according to Kayla Bruun, economic analyst at Morning Consult.

While no one is immune to recent price spikes, smaller income households are feeling it most because they have less of a financial buffer, Bruun said.

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Some 6.7 million people were hired into new jobs in February, according to the Labor Department’s latest Job Openings and Labor Turnover Survey, with the biggest gains happening in construction.

Hiring outpaced 6.1 million separations for the month, including an elevated 4.4 million people, or 2.9% of the workforce, who quit their job voluntarily. Quits rose across retail trade, durable goods manufacturing and public education workers for the month.

With job openings high and not enough people to fill them, economists say that even more money and flexibility won’t stop record turnover, and it could make America’s burnout problem worse.

99 million people aren’t looking for work

Even though quitting and hiring is happening really fast, the job market isn’t pulling people pushed out of the labor force during Covid back in, says Ron Hetrick, senior economist with Emsi Burning Glass, a labor market analytics firm. He tells CNBC Make It the level of churn happening is like “recycling the same workers back and forth without bringing in new people.”

The U.S. labor market had 11.3 million job openings in February, with the biggest increases happening in arts, entertainment and recreation; educational services; and federal government. A lot of openings are for in-person jobs, so “we’re going to have an imperfect labor market. You won’t always have people where they need to be” to fill vacancies, Hetrick says.

Meanwhile, there were only 56 unemployed workers for every 100 job openings.

Though the average unemployment rate is ticking down, the number of people not actively looking for work remains high — nearly 99 million people according to the Census Household Pulse Survey from March 2 to 14. Of that share, nearly half, or 42.4 million, were retired. For comparison, in the survey’s first week from April 23 to May 5, 2020, the Census Bureau reports 117.8 million American’s weren’t working, and roughly one-third, or 37 million, were retired.

After retirees, the next-largest group of people not actively looking for work in March 2022 include 18.8 million who gave “other” as their reason, and another 7 million didn’t report a reason at all. Elsewhere, people reported they were unable to work because they were sick or disabled not related to Covid; responsible for caregiving; sick with Covid or caring for someone else who was; or concerned about Covid risks.

It’s not about pay — yet

Employers are scrambling for a solution to reach these tens of millions of Americans, Hetrick says: How do you advertise that you’re willing to be flexible in a job to someone who’s not actively looking for one?

With companies raising wages and offering flexible benefits, Hetrick doesn’t think money is the main issue keeping people out of the workforce.

“I don’t think this is about pay,” Hetrick says. “It’s about, ‘is this job going to fit with the circumstances of my life?'”

For example, workers with caregiving responsibilities might not think an employer will be accommodating to their schedule, Hetrick says. “If there are people out there who think, ‘I don’t see how work can fit into what’s going on in my life right now,’ and if employers are willing to work with them to make it fit — that’s the disconnect we have to fix.”

He says companies will have to do “earnest, intentional discovery” to figure out how to make jobs more accommodating to people not in the workforce. Until then, “employers are wishing this problem away.”

More people could come back to the labor force out of financial necessity, too. According to the Census Household Pulse Survey, many people not actively looking for work are paying their bills by relying on credit cards or their savings accounts. Rising inflation could draw down those resources and require people to take new jobs.

A tight job market could make burnout worse

Rucha Vankudre, senior economist at Emsi Burning Glass, says she expects the tight labor market with record churn and openings to continue, unless employers make a drastic decision to cut back their workforce.

But Hetrick says the level of churn during the ongoing Great Resignation could lead to burnout among the people who stay put. “If you’re an employer asking workers, ‘Hey, I just need you to give a little more until we staff up,’ you’re now five to six months into doing that.”

Productivity has remained high even in industries facing supply chain issues and labor shortages like manufacturing, he adds. Leaders in those sectors should be concerned for the resilience of their strained workforces, Hetrick says: “Can we continue these [business] gains, or do we risk burning people out?”

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President Joe Biden’s proposed budget for 2023 aims to give the Social Security Administration more funding to improve services.

Some groups say the increase doesn’t go far enough.

Biden wants to ramp up discretionary funding for the Social Security Administration in his proposed 2023 budget by $1.8 billion, for a total of $14.8 billion. That’s about a 14% increase from funding levels enacted in 2021 for the government agency, which administers retirement, disability and survivor benefits for about 70 million Americans.

Under the proposed $14.8 billion budget, $1.6 billion more (also a 14% increase over 2021) would go toward improving the agency’s services, while efforts to protect the program’s integrity would get $224 million more than in 2021.

Biden also sought more money for Social Security last year, having proposed a 9.7% increase, or $14.2 billion total, for 2022, to help improve customer service amid the ongoing Covid-19 pandemic.

Proposed changes to Social Security

The additional $1.6 billion for services would go to field offices, state disability determination services and teleservice centers. In addition, the funds would also be used to add staff to help reduce wait times and speed up the processing of disability claims.

The proposal would also enable the agency to make changes to help ensure everyone who needs its services can access them, including people who are homeless, children with disabilities or adults with intellectual or mental disabilities.

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The $224 million increase from 2021 for protecting the program’s integrity would bring the total to $1.8 billion. Those funds would make ensure the program is providing the correct benefits to those who qualify and that the program’s funds are being spent responsibly. That money would also go to help support the investigation and prosecution of fraud.

Groups hoped to see more

The National Committee to Preserve Social Security and Medicare praised the proposed funding for the Social Security Administration’s operations, which “have been strained by the pandemic and more than a decade of GOP-forced spending cuts,” the non-profit advocacy group said on Monday.

The funding could help reduce customer service bottlenecks, including long wait times on the agency’s 800 number and for disability hearings, and help the agency reopen field offices that were shuttered during the pandemic, it said.

However, the group also said it hoped to see more in the budget.

“While we appreciate many aspects of the President’s FY2023 budget proposal, we had hoped that it would reflect efforts by Democrats in Congress to boost Social Security, including a much-needed increase in benefits and an adjustment of the payroll wage cap so that the wealthy pay their fair share into the system,” Max Richtman, president and CEO of the National Committee to Preserve Social Security and Medicare, said in a statement.   

A bill was reintroduced in Congress by Rep. John Larson, D-Conn., in October that would provide a benefit boost for new and existing beneficiaries, amounting to about 2% of the average benefit. In addition, it would also set a higher minimum benefit for low-income workers.

That legislation also seeks to increase the Social Security taxes paid by higher-wage earners by reapplying payroll taxes for those earning $400,000 and up. Currently, those payroll taxes of 6.2% paid by both the employee and employer are applied only to wages up to $147,000 in 2022.

Biden’s new budget proposal also comes as the trust funds on which Social Security relies to pay benefits are projected to be depleted in 2034. At that point, 78% of promised benefits will be payable.

The Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget, a non-profit organization, took issue with the fact that Biden’s budget did not address that.

“The budget does not go far enough toward putting the nation’s fiscal house back in order, nor does it tackle the tougher tradeoffs necessary to responsibly prevent Social Security, Medicare, and Highway Trust Fund insolvency,” Maya MacGuineas, president of the Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget, said in a statement.

Project management jobs are quickly becoming a way for people with non-technical backgrounds to earn lucrative tech paychecks. Project managers have to be generalists with a knack for good communication, organization, critical thinking and being resourceful — skills that translate well across any number of industries.

A few seconds scrolling through project manager TikTok will give you the scoop on how to get certified online (some people do it within weeks) and make a career jump.

CNBC Make It spoke with three people who recently made the shift into project management about how they did it, and why — even though none of them negotiated their salary — they’re all pretty happy with their pay.

$65,000 in Jacksonville, Florida

Name: Madison Das

Age: 21

Identifies as: Indian and Polish; she/they

Works for: a tech start-up

Training: associate’s degree in biomedical sciences and an interdisciplinary bachelor’s degree covering chemistry, sociology and English literature; a Google project management certification completed in six weeks

Time in the field: 3 months

You just started a new job and plan to be promoted in a few months — how did that happen? When I was interviewing, the department director and my direct supervisor, who are both women, told me: We don’t want you to stay at this level for more than six months. Our intention is to have people grow.

That’s been reaffirmed to me within my first month. Part of my developmental goals is to spend 10 hours a week getting trained in Salesforce. Companies worried about job-hopping really have to show their teams: We want to promote you and have you stay with us, and we’ll tell you that on day one.

What made you want to post a video on TikTok sharing your salary? When researching pay ranges online, I saw a lot of guys posting, “Here’s how I make $300,000 in tech.” Usually they were talking about their total compensation with equity and other benefits. I heard from other tech newcomers who felt discouraged they weren’t getting those big offers out the gate.

What I really needed was a full breakdown of entry-level starting salary, then other benefits, to understand each part of the package. I wanted to make a video breaking it down to be transparent and help others.

Did you negotiate your salary? I didn’t. I set my salary expectations between $65,000 and $80,000. When my organization offered me $65,000, which was in my acceptable window, I just ran with it. I think that I’m paid fairly for the entry-level job I do presently. But if I could go back knowing what I know now and hearing other people’s experiences, I would negotiate — 100%.

What did you learn from not negotiating? As a woman, I’m sometimes afraid to ask for what I want. I’ve learned negotiating isn’t just putting in the effort to get the numbers, but it’s having the courage to ask.

I’ve started talking with my colleagues about pay. One person told me her starting salary, how she moved up and how she learned to negotiate.

Right now, my goal is to get promoted to the level of “project manager,” which will pay around $100,000, before the end of the year. As long as I prepare to negotiate, I’m very confident I’ll be able to accomplish that.

$100,000 in Charlotte, North Carolina

Name: Lisa

Age: 26

Identifies as: white, she/her

Works for: a manufacturing company

Training: bachelor’s and master’s degrees in social sciences and leadership, a week-long ScrumMaster course, a Google project management certification completed in three months

Time in the field: 2 years

How did you change careers? I worked in higher education for four years and never held a “project manager” title, even though that’s a lot of what I did in my job. To switch industries, I had to translate my academic resume into corporate terminology.

I tailored the each section of my resume to match the bullet points in job descriptions and even changed the actual job titles I held. I reached out to my previous bosses, told them about my new career goals and asked for permission to change my former job titles to “project manager.”

I think it helped my resume get past applicant tracking systems and showed hiring managers I have experience doing this exact type of work.

How did you research your salary? I did a week-long ScrumMaster course and met people who’d been in project management for years. I researched average project manager salaries in my area and asked them, “Here’s what I’m expecting as a first-time project manager. Would you mind sharing the range of what you were making in your first project manager role?”

It helped to ask about a previous role as opposed to what they’re making now. Some people went on to share their whole salary history, what they’re currently at and their best negotiation tips.

What’s the best negotiation tip you heard? After you get an offer, come in with an itemized list with how you meet each part of the job description. Then point out five to 10 ways you go above and beyond their expectations. Use that to back up why you’re asking for the additional $5,000 or $10,000.

Did you negotiate your salary? After three rounds of interviews, I was offered $100,000 with an up to 20% bonus based on company performance. I accepted it as-is. I was happy with it because I know it was the upper part of the range I researched and asked for.

How do you feel about how much money you make? I nearly tripled my income from $34,000 a year at my old job. The money has been life-changing. If I’d stayed in higher ed, I wouldn’t make what I’m earning now until retirement age.

$125,000 in San Diego, California

Name: Alister Shirazi

Age: 34

Identifies as: white and Middle Eastern, he/him

Works for: a tech company

Training: a bachelor’s degree in economics, an MBA, Python certifications through online and community college courses

Time in the field: 4½ years

How did you learn to negotiate? Years ago, I was working for a startup doing business operations but learned to code and transitioned to doing more technical work. Even though I was working more efficiently, I didn’t get a raise for two years. I talked to my coworkers about it, we compared salary numbers, and they encouraged me to advocate for a raise. I also went on interviews for tech jobs to get a sense of what the industry was paying.

I presented my case for a raise and went from earning $80,000 to $100,000, and then to $120,000 with a bonus before I left.

You weren’t able to negotiate your current salary. Why did you accept it? After that job, I took a six-month contract position with a major tech company and earned $60 an hour. I learned these contract jobs don’t have room to negotiate and have zero benefits like paid time off or stock options. But, you get the recognition of working for a big tech company. Now, recruiters are constantly in my inbox. For my current 12-month contract, I did an initial interview on a Tuesday and got the offer by Friday.

I’m happy to have the opportunity to bounce around because it gives me a diverse skillset, and I can add it to my personal brand equity. I’m OK to get my money, learn and get out.

How do you feel about how much money you make? I make enough for now. I think of it as using my salary to finance my dreams, which is to open other businesses. I work from home, so I also save on commuting and have a flexible schedule. If I had to go into an office every day, I don’t know that this would be enough money.

When do you bring up pay in job interviews? I think it’s important to discuss salary early in interviews. Why would you spend your time preparing for interviews if you don’t know the company will pay what you want? If they’re not willing to agree on your pay range, know when to walk away.

Interviews have been edited for length and clarity.

Check out:

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In this installment, a 21-year-old shares how she makes $65,000 working as an associate project manager in Jacksonville, Florida.

Madison Das just started a new job in January, but she’s pretty sure she’s going to get promoted in a few months.

She’s not being presumptuous — her new employer told her as much. Das, 21, lives in Jacksonville, Florida, and started working as an associate project manager with a start-up this year. While interviewing, she was struck by how the hiring managers asked about her career plans.

“They told me, ‘We don’t want you to stay in this role for more than six months,'” Das tells CNBC Make It. “My department director and my direct supervisor are both women, and they both told me, ‘The intention is to bring people in to have them grow.'”

Das checked the company’s LinkedIn profile and saw many of its entry-level employees were promoted within their first six to eight months. For Das, it was a sign the company was invested in keeping their employees around.

Das accepted the company’s offer of associate project manager and now earns $65,000 in base salary. By the end of the year, Das expects to be promoted to the level of project manager with the earning potential of $100,000 a year.

TikTok launched her career change

Das studied biomedical sciences, chemistry and sociology in college and applied to medical school but was rejected on her first try. She took some time to think through her next move and picked up marketing jobs at a few local small businesses.

The Covid-19 pandemic made her want to jump into health care, so in June 2020, she took a job with a health-care network to develop a text-based app where patients could connect to their doctor. She enjoyed working across teams to create trainings and operations materials.

Das earned $20 per hour and, after a year, got bumped up to $20.90 per hour. But she wanted more pay and career growth and felt it was time to change jobs. As she thought through another career shift, she landed on project management TikTok.

“It was honestly TikTok as a platform that helped me put a name to what I was doing, find value in it and then be able to pursue it to what it is today as my career,” she says.

Through TikTok clips, Das realized the type of work she enjoyed doing — documenting workflows, creating training materials, managing projects — and learned about getting certified in project management through Google. She completed the six-month course within six weeks and began applying to jobs immediately. She earned her PM certification in mid-December and landed her new job by January.

As an associate project manager, Das works on her own projects and plays a support role to other people on her team.

“I did it so quickly,” Das says of her career change. “It feels like really anybody can.”

How she’d negotiate differently

Das says she initially found discussing pay in hiring interviews to be “so uncomfortable.”

She did some online research and named her salary expectations between $65,000 and $80,000. But coming from a previous rate of under $21 per hour, “because I was increasing so much, I felt like I was appreciative for anything,” Das says.

She also felt pressure as the sole earner of her household for a stretch: Her husband, who is originally from Brazil, encountered Covid-related delays with his visa and was unable to work for roughly a year. He received a temporary employment authorization in September 2021, but his visa status is still pending.

So when Das got the job offer of a $65,000 starting salary earlier this year, she “just ran with it.” She accepted the package as-is, which also includes a phone and internet stipend, and a 10% bonus paid out quarterly. Das estimates her total compensation to be roughly $73,000. She’s eligible to purchase company stock options each quarter, which she’ll do for the first time at the end of March.

Das feels she’s being paid fairly, as the company worked with her range, and she feels supported on her path to promotion. But, “if I could go back knowing what I know now, I would negotiate, 100%,” she says.

Salary transparency in tech

In February, Das posted her own TikTok going over the difference between her base salary and her total compensation — something she wishes see saw more of when she was researching what kind of pay to negotiate for.

She often saw people, mostly men, posting their pay in the mid-six figures. It included their benefits and stock options but often didn’t name the base salary, which is what she needed to work off of.

Das heard from other tech newcomers that they felt discouraged and didn’t know where to start negotiating. “The internet is one of the easiest ways to get information, but it’s also one of the easiest ways to get confused,” she says.

Das, who lives with the chronic illness cardiac-valvular Ehlers-Danlos syndrome, hopes posting her own salary breakdown encourages others from underrepresented backgrounds to see space for them in tech. “I am a biracial Indian, disabled woman in my early 20s. Breaking into tech wasn’t the easiest thing for me.”

Das has also grown more comfortable discussing pay with co-workers. Her first week on the job, she asked someone about how stock options work. Her colleague ended up going through her starting salary, her progression at the company and how she negotiated her pay — which Das plans to take with her into her next salary conversation with managers. She feels the start-up encourages a culture of transparency, which makes it easier to talk about money.

Das admits that working toward a promotion and raise within the year “feels like crazy fast development,” but given the feedback she’s gotten from supervisors, she feels “very confident that I’ll be able to accomplish that, whether it’s within my current organization or moving to another.”

Eventually, she wants to work her way up to becoming a tech executive and lead organizations toward “more success, more growth, and more inclusive behaviors long-term.”

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Making more money is great, but it doesn’t mean as much if you are having a harder time making ends meet.

Although wages are rising, the prices consumers must pay for goods and services are rising faster — notching a new 40-year high in February.

As a result, real inflation-adjusted average hourly earnings for the month fell 0.8%, contributing to a 2.6% decline from the year before, according to the BLS.

“Wages are up 5.1% over the past year, which is trailing the pace of inflation,” said Mark Hamrick, a senior economic analyst at Bankrate.com. “Indeed, surging prices are stealing the show on the minds of consumers.”

When wages rise at a slower pace than inflation, paychecks don’t go as far at the grocery store and at the gas pump — two areas of the budget that are getting particularly squeezed.

Household grocery bills swelled by 8.6% in the last 12 months, the largest jump since April 1981, according to the U.S. Department of Labor, while overall energy costs, including gasoline, are up the most since July 1981.

“It’s very difficult to fully evade inflation,” said Yiming Ma, an assistant finance professor at Columbia University Business School. “Certain types of spending can be postponed, but everyone needs to eat and everyone needs to go to work.”

“People do not buy food staples, gasoline or electricity because they love these things; they buy them because they need them,” Hamrick said.

Studies show that these recent price spikes have already taken a toll.

Two-thirds of American workers say their pay is not adequate to cover the rising cost of inflation, according to a report by Credit Karma, which polled more than 2,000 adults in February.

Of the adults who have felt inflation’s impact over the past year, nearly three-quarters, or 74%, said that price hikes have hurt them financially, according to a separate report from Bankrate.com.

Roughly 64% of the U.S. population now lives paycheck to paycheck, up from 61% at the end of the last year and just shy of the high of 65% in 2020, another LendingClub report found.

More people may be forced to scale back their spending, find a job that pays more or dig deeper into their cash reserves, Hamrick said. “How consumers adapt is going to be key in the coming months.”

On the policy side, the Federal Reserve raised its federal funds rate this week to help calm skyrocketing inflation and laid the groundwork for more hikes to come.

When the Fed raises rates, borrowing becomes more expensive, thereby cooling off demand and hopefully holding down prices.

However, it will take a long time to feel the effects of these incremental moves, Hamrick said. “In terms of waiting for the Fed to do its job, that cavalry is going to be slow in arriving.”

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But it was frustrating to see the pay inequality that content creators constantly faced. So earlier this year, I decided to quit my $150,000-per-year job at TikTok to start a “Glassdoor-like” app called Clara for Creators.

Since launching, it has helped more than 7,000 influencers and content creators share and compare pay rates and review their experiences working with brands.

The pay gap in influencer marketing

Nowadays, there are very few barriers to becoming a content creator. With the popularity of TikTok, for example, you don’t need to invest hundreds or thousands of dollars in equipment; anyone can try to build an audience and monetize their platform with videos they shoot on a smartphone.

As a result, more and more creators have entered the business. The problem? They have little knowledge about how much money they could — or should — be making.

Content creator deals are tricky. How much you’re paid depends on the type of content you’re offering a brand and on what platform — an Instagram post versus a YouTube video, for example. Other factors include the size of your following, engagement metrics and success rates with previous partnerships.

To make matters even more complicated, brands often ask an influencer for their rate instead of offering everyone a base pay with room to negotiate.

Many creators end up selling themselves short, especially women and people of color. I once saw a man get paid 10 times what a woman creator was paid for the same campaign — just because he asked for more. I’ve also seen Latinx creators with triple the following of white creators be paid half as much.

How I started my mission-based business

I knew a major problem that creators faced was that they couldn’t Google how much money they could charge for marketing a product or service on their platform. That lightbulb moment — and how much I cared about the creators I worked with — inspired me to build Clara.

I wanted creators to be able to share reviews of brands they had worked with, along with how much they were paid for different types of content based on their number of followers.

In March 2021, I sent a bunch of cold messages to potential investors on LinkedIn. In July, after weeks of non-stop outreach that turned into more than 10 pitch meetings, I received a small investment from an individual investor. I used that money to contract a team of developers, who I worked alongside to build and test the app.

Clara finally launched for iOS in January this year. Within a month, without spending any money on advertisements, more than 7,000 creators signed up to share their rates on Clara, including top TikTok creators like Devon Rodriguez and Nancy Bullard, who each have 24.4 million and 2.9 million social media followers, respectively.

On January 14, I quit my job at TikTok as a creator program manager to work on Clara full-time. While I am taking a massive pay cut by leaving my 9-to-5, I’m living off money I make as a content creator and my savings.

Right now, I’m focused on raising capital to grow the platform. I’m also spreading the word about equal pay and how important resources like Clara are. l post career advice and other resources on my TikTok account, where I currently have 348,000 followers.

Get paid fairly: Know your rights and do your research

There are many things you can do to work towards greater pay equity for yourself and others in your industry.

When discussing pay with your coworkers, it’s important to know your rights. Some corporations may try to scare you from it by saying that salary talk is against company policy. But under the National Labor Relations Act, many employees have the right to talk about their wages with their coworkers.

I’ve had six full-time jobs, and fear used to keep me from talking about money. But the first time I openly discussed my salary with a colleague, I found out I was being underpaid. I then used that knowledge to look for new roles where I’d be paid more fairly.

These conversations don’t have to be awkward, especially if you’ve established a safe and comfortable relationship. Rather than flat-out asking “How much are you making?,” approach the discussion in a “let’s help each other” way. You might be surprised by the number of people who are willing to talk about it.

Keep in mind that while you have the right to communicate about your wages, your employer may have lawful policies against using their equipment — like work laptops — to have the discussion. Protect yourself by understanding your company’s policy before sending a rallying Slack message.

And always do your research before accepting a contract. Sites like Glassdoor, Levels and Clara offer this data for free.

You can also search sites like TikTok and YouTube to get deep insights about pay. There are many creators who, like me, are open about what they’ve been paid at previous companies — down to stock offerings and sign-on bonuses, and who share information about company cultures overall. 

I also created a spreadsheet for people to share their titles and salaries alongside important demographic information I’ve seen left out on other databases, like gender, age and diverse identity fields. So far, it has over 62,000 entries.

When asked for your desired salary or rate, say: “Based on my experience, skills and industry standard, I’d like to be paid [X].” If you’re a creator, mention the size of your audience or engagement metrics that have wowed past customers.

And remember, start high. The worst thing they can say is “no.”

Christen Nino De Guzman is the founder of Clara for Creators, a community that empowers creators through transparency, brand reviews and discoverability. She is a Latina creator, speaker and mentor in the tech space, where she has experience working with content creators at social networking companies such as Instagram, TikTok and Pinterest.

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A new coalition called Organizations for Pay Equity Now, or OPEN Imperative, launched Tuesday with the goal of eliminating the gender pay gap among pre-IPO start-ups by 2027.

More than 200 founders, CEOs and investors have joined the coalition, according to OPEN Imperative. Member start-ups and venture capital firms include Prezzee, a digital gift card company; Landed, a fintech that works with homebuyers; Hearken, a newsroom consulting firm and newly public Nextdoor, a neighborhood-based social networking platform.

“What’s so exciting about working with pre-IPO companies is these are the fastest-growing companies in the world,” Emily Sweet, lead of OPEN Imperative, said in a panel Monday.

“These are the future CEOs and founders of larger enterprises and if they can start baking in these practices from the ground up at these early stages, it will continue to grow with the company and continue to make impact,” Sweet added.

OPEN Imperative members pledge to reduce gender pay gaps by 60% in the group’s first year of operation. The initiative will provide members with a confidential audit of members’ gender pay equity performance.

Access to compensation data is the barrier to closing the gender pay gap most commonly cited by business leaders, according to an OpenComp survey of 500 start-up CEOs, CFOs and HR executives.

“Expose the gap so you can actually activate some change,” OPEN Imperative founding partner and CEO and co-founder of OpenComp Thanh Nguyen said. “When you bury the data or you don’t seek the data out, then you’re not going to do anything with it.”

Other best practices discussed during Monday’s panel include sharing pay ranges upfront and not asking candidates about salary history. 

The announcement Tuesday coincides with this year’s Equal Pay Day in the U.S. The symbolic day marks how far into the year women would need to work to make what men earned the previous year.

Women in the U.S. made 83 cents for every dollar men made in 2020, according to Census Bureau data for full-time, year-round workers ages 15 and older. When disaggregated by race and ethnicity, women of color experience an even wider wage gap, according to AAUW.

If the coalition meets its goal of reducing pay gaps by 60%, Equal Pay Day for its members could shift to Jan. 31, 2023, which is 43 days sooner than this year.

Equitable compensation “helps to retain employees, it increases productivity, increases goodwill between employees and employers,” said C. Nicole Mason, OPEN Imperative advisory board member and president and CEO of the Institute for Women’s Policy Research. “So it’s really a win-win for both employers and employees.”

Tom Brady sat on the sidelines for only 40 days before deciding to end his retirement from pro football.

It is possible that more retired workers could do the same, according to research from the Center for Retirement Research at Boston College.

To be sure, Brady is not your average retiree. Yet at just 44 years old, the celebrity quarterback was the oldest player entering the 2021-2022 NFL season.

On Sunday, Brady announced he will come back and play another season for the Tampa Bay Buccaneers.

Today there are more than 15 million people who fall between the traditional retirement ages of 55 to 70 who say they are retired, according to the Center for Retirement Research.

In recent decades, only a small number of people decided to do an about-face and return to the workforce.

Now, however, it is possible recent trends could help entice more retirees to come back.

Job openings outnumbered available workers in January by almost 5 million, according to the latest government data.

As companies reopen their offices, many are keeping hybrid and remote work available as an option for workers who are reluctant to return to their traditional prepandemic schedules.

To estimate how many retired workers could return — or “unretire” — the Center for Retirement Research evaluated data from the Current Population Survey to evaluate trends over the past few decades.

Based on that data, the Center estimates 1.9% more workers could return from retirement now than typically would. That represents about 300,000 additional workers. To be sure, that’s less than one-tenth of the shortage of 4 million workers at the time the research was published and as such may not be a solution to the problem, the Center for Retirement Research concluded.

Typically, 5% to 8% of workers who indicate they’re retired will reverse course the next year, the researchers found through their data analysis.

That rate typically holds constant, even in times of economic booms, according to Matt Rutledge, research fellow at the Center for Retirement Research.

“It’s not so much that they’re unretiring because they need the money,” Rutledge said. “It’s more that they’re unretired because that was always part of the plan.”

They may decide that they’re not the types to play golf or watch their grandchildren after all. Or, like Brady, they may decide they still have more left they want to accomplish professionally.

Time will tell if the current rate will surpass the typical number of retirees returning to work in any given year.

Rutledge said he would not be surprised if we see a higher number of people coming back from retirement, because this time is so different due to the Covid-19 pandemic.

“There’s a lot of very productive people sitting on the sidelines just waiting,” Rutledge said.

“It would be a shame if they don’t come back, maybe in the same way that it’s a shame that Brady walks away throwing 4,000-plus yards,” he said. “It would be a shame to waste that talent, and I think that’s the case pretty broadly all the way up the age spectrum, too.”

Some are willing to take a pay cut in exchange for a better schedule.

One-third of workers who switched jobs during the pandemic took less pay in exchange for better work-life balance, according to a survey by Prudential. And about 20% of workers said they would take a 10% pay cut if it meant they could work for themselves or have better hours.

Many workers also want job security and would trade higher pay to work for a company long-term. The survey found that 56% said they had or would consider prioritizing stability over a bigger salary.

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That could also lead to less paid overtime. To be sure, many people who switched jobs have seen increases in take-home pay. A survey from The Conference Board found that about one-third of workers who left jobs during the pandemic are making 30% more in their new roles. However, about 27% who switched jobs said pay was the same or less in their new job.

Things to consider

Of course, taking a pay cut will directly affect your finances and may not be advisable right away, according to Tania Brown, an Atlanta-based certified financial planner and founder of FinanciallyConfidentMom.com.

If you’re weighing a job where you will make less money, there are a few things you need to consider beforehand, she said.

First, ask yourself why you want to leave your current job, she said. Are you burned out? Will a different job or career be more fulfilling? Are you planning to move?

Contemplating the answers to these questions will help ensure you don’t make a rash decision you’ll later regret, said Brown.

“Emotions have no logic, and you’re trying to make a math decision based on emotion,” Brown said. “It’s just not going to turn out.”

Additionally, if you’re only a few months away from paying off debts or hitting a similar financial goal, you may want to hold off.

Plus, you may realize you don’t want to leave your job, but instead would like more flexibility or a change in your role. If that is the case, now is a great time to ask for a different schedule, to take on different responsibilities or to try to introduce other flexibilities into your job, said Anita Samojednik, CEO of Paro, which provides accounting and finance solutions for businesses, focused on workers who do so-called mental tasks for a living — such as programmers, pharmacists and lawyers.

She said she’s seen many people dip their toes into freelancing in addition to a full-time job to test the waters of a new gig or becoming their own boss.

The math

If you discover that switching jobs is truly what you want, then you have some math to do, Brown said.

That includes a deep dive into your current budget to see if you can achieve your objectives on a smaller income.

Brown suggests a trial period of a few months where you try to see if you can meet your goals on smaller take-home pay. That test run could help you decide if a pay cut is right for you.

You should also think about how making less will affect your long-term goals, Brown said. If you’re saving up for a house or plan on having a baby, how will your new income change the timelines on those milestones? If it will take longer, is it worth it for you to wait?

If you’re part of a family, you should also consult the other members in your household before making your move. That means talking with your spouse and children about what changes would take place, such as fewer trips or less money for extra activities — and deciding if it works for everyone.

“This has to be a family decision because your decision is impacting everyone in the household,” said Brown.

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Though Black students are increasingly questioning the value of college , there are several Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs) where alumni see higher median salaries than other Black graduates in the same state, according to recent data from OnlineU, a higher education resource for aspiring students.

Famous for their rich culture, historic significance and family-like campus community, some HBCUs have significantly lower tuition rates than other four-year institutions. Through grants, scholarships, and other financial aid resources, HBCUs are often able to better help their students with college costs.

OnlineU identified that Xavier University, in New Orleans, Louisiana, offers the highest financial payoff for Black graduates. The median salary for XULA graduates is $52,582 compared to the $36,962 median salary for other Black graduates with the same level of education in Louisiana, a $15,619 difference.

OnlineU also notes regional differences and market disparities as a key factor in the salaries of Black students. 

“Comparing median earnings at HBCUs to other Black graduates in the state helps to highlight the value each college provides to the communities they serve, and also accounts for racial inequities in the labor market that negatively impact salaries for Black college graduates,” said author Taylor Nichols, in the report. “Accounting for the location of the school is also important given most HBCUs are located in southern states where median earnings are lower overall.”

Based on the findings, these are the top 10 HBCUs with the highest payoff for black students:

1. Xavier University of Louisiana

New Orleans, Louisiana

Median Salary: $52,582

Median Salary for other Black grads: $36,962

Financial Payoff: $15,619

2. Spelman College

Atlanta, Georgia

Median Salary: $49,625

Median Salary for other Black grads: $40,346

Financial Payoff: $9,279

3. Hampton University

Hampton, Virginia

Median Salary: $47,197

Median Salary for other Black grads: $43,180

Financial Payoff: $4,016

4. Morehouse College

Atlanta, Georgia

Median Salary: $44,135

Median Salary for other Black grads: $40,346

Financial Payoff: $3,789

5. Florida Agricultural and Mechanical University

Tallahassee, Florida

Median Salary: $39,700

Median Salary for other Black grads: $36,074

Financial Payoff: $3,626

6. Tennessee State University

Nashville, Tennessee

Median Salary: $37,272

Median Salary for other Black grads: $34,039

Financial Payoff: $3,232

7. Fisk University

Nashville, Tennessee

Median Salary: $36,955

Median Salary for other Black grads: $34,039

Financial Payoff: $2,916

8. Tuskegee University

Tuskegee, Alabama

Median Salary: $37,483

Median Salary for other Black grads: $36,003

Financial Payoff: $1,480

9. Alcorn State University

Alcorn, Mississippi

Median Salary: $32,837

Median Salary for other Black grads: $32,385

Financial Payoff: $452

10. Dillard University

New Orleans, Louisiana

Median Salary: $37,377

Median Salary for other Black grads: $36,962

Financial Payoff: $415

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Retirees who are feeling the pinch of higher prices, take heart: There could be a much bigger Social Security cost-of-living adjustment next year.

A preliminary estimate from The Senior Citizens League, a non-partisan senior group, finds that the 2023 cost-of-living adjustment, or COLA, could be as high as 7.6%, based on the latest Consumer Price Index data.

In comparison, the Social Security COLA for 2022 in January was 5.9%, the highest bump in 40 years.

Data released Thursday found that the Consumer Price Index for all Urban Consumers, also known as the CPI-U, notched a new 40-year high with an increase of 7.9% over the past 12 months.

The Social Security COLA is calculated based on another measure, the Consumer Price Index for Urban Wage Earners and Clerical Workers, or CPI-W.

The CPI-U is a more general index that tracks retail prices all urban consumers pay. The CPI-W, on the other hand, is a more specialized measure of the retail prices affecting urban hourly wage earners and clerical workers, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics.

High oil prices were one factor in The Senior Citizen League’s current 7.6% estimate. The CPI-W puts a higher weight on food, clothing, transportation, and other goods and services compared to the CPI-U.

To be sure, the official COLA for next year will not be determined by the Social Security Administration until October. Consequently, there are many more months of data still to come.

Much of how high next year’s COLA actually turns out to be will depend on inflation.

The Federal Reserve is expected to raise interest rates, and thereby attempt to curb rising prices, this year.

That could push the COLA lower than the current estimate. Price moderation could provide relief for retirees and other seniors who are grappling with high consumer costs.

The Senior Citizens League has found that the 5.9% COLA for 2022 is already falling short for many retirees.

The average retiree benefit is currently around $1,564, according to The Senior Citizens League. But as of March, the benefit would need to be $1,698.50 to keep up with an 8.6% year over year increase in the CPI-W as of February. To date, there is a total $107.90 shortfall in benefits for the average retiree, based on The Senior Citizens League’s calculations.

To be sure, Social Security is not intended to replace all of a person’s income in retirement, said Mary Johnson, Social Security and Medicare policy analyst at The Senior Citizens League.

In order to adjust for inflation, retirees would likely have to draw down extra money from a pension or other investments to make up the difference for record high costs, she said.

In January there were 11.3 million job openings, 6.5 million hires and 6.1 million separations, according to the Department of Labor’s latest Job Openings and Labor Turnover Survey.

Openings increased in other services (which ranges from auto workers to hairstylists to laundry workers) and in durable goods manufacturing, while hiring remained steady from the previous month.

The total number of people who quit voluntarily edged down to 4.3 million, or 2.9% of the labor force, which is down from a record high in November but still incredibly elevated and signals people feel confident about finding a better job. Quits decreased in retail trade and in information but increased in finance and insurance.

Elise Gould, senior economist with the Economic Policy Institute, noted that the rate of hiring remains higher than the rate of quitting in any industry, which means that when people quit, they’re moving to better jobs in the same industry rather than switching careers or leaving the workforce.

Why people quit

Americans said their biggest reasons for quitting in the last year were low pay, a lack of career advancement and because they felt disrespected at work, according to a new report from Pew Research Center.

Organizations have raised wages and worked on retention efforts throughout the Great Resignation, but San Francisco-based therapist Avigail Lev says companies need to recognize another point of friction causing employees to quit: company leadership.

She says the pandemic has made people reevaluate how they want to spend their time and who they want to spend it with. She adds people are questioning traditional workplaces that reward psychopathic traits in leaders, like seeking recognition, being self-centered and having a high sense of entitlement.

“People don’t want to be engaged in these dynamics” and they’re “sick and tired of trying to please these types of people,” Lev says.

The Pew survey also finds people who quit for a new job say their new role offers them better pay, more opportunities for advancement and more work-life balance and flexibility.

Jobseekers have a lot of leverage

Recruiters are fighting to hire for historically high openings and backfill for people moving to new jobs. As of January, there were roughly six jobseekers for every 10 openings — or nearly two open roles for every available worker.

“The problem right now is there aren’t enough bodies to fill jobs,” says Rucha Vankudre, a senior economist at Emsi Burning Glass, a labor market analytics firm. “Without a major change in the labor force participation rate or employer behavior, like deciding they are willing to let positions stay empty instead of hiring for them, it seems unlikely things will change.”

Throughout the pandemic many workers, especially women and caregivers, have been unable to rejoin the labor force due to ongoing child-care challenges and health concerns over the virus.

The U.S. labor market added 678,000 jobs in February, with the largest gains in hard-hit sectors including leisure and hospitality, education and health services, and professional and business services. The February jobs report “indicates that the job market is healthy and resilient to the ebbs and flows of the pandemic,” Glassdoor senior economist Daniel Zhao told CNBC. “We’ve seen that job gains have been over 400,000 for 10 months in a row.”

The overall unemployment rate fell to 3.8% in February but remains high for some groups. Broken down by race, the jobless rate is 6.6% for Black workers, 4.4% for Hispanic workers, 3.3% for white workers and 3.1% for Asian American and Pacific Islander workers.

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Some 85% of working women believe they deserve a pay increase, according to a new Glassdoor survey of more than 800 workers, and 63% believe the Great Resignation gives them leverage to negotiate.

Roughly 47 million Americans quit a job last year, with many citing the opportunity for better pay and benefits, as well as more stable and accommodating work, as major reasons why. In the summer of 2021, women who were quitting for better-paying jobs saw above-average wage growth, though small bumps did little to make up for the gender wage gap or the fact that women are disproportionately employed in low-wage work.

Any opportunity to adjust pay is an opportunity to examine the gender wage gap, which 41% of women surveyed by Glassdoor say is “a serious problem” at their companies.

Employees are discussing pay among themselves

Economists have long said that greater pay transparency could help close racial and gender wage gaps.

Women on average make about 82 cents for every $1 earned by a white non-Hispanic man, according to the National Women’s Law Center, and it’s even more stark for women of color: Black women make 62 cents, Native American women make 57 cents and Latina women make 54 cents for every dollar a white man earns.

Sharing salary information with colleagues can be a huge help, but discussing money continues to be taboo, says Alison Sullivan, a career trends expert with Glassdoor. This could discourage women from gathering internal pay data and making the case for a raise. Though 45% of women say they feel comfortable sharing their pay with a coworker, only 29% have actually done so.

And 28% of employees overall say their company discourages them from discussing their pay with coworkers.

Importantly, discussing pay with colleagues is considered legal and protected activity for most private-sector employees under the National Labor Relations Act.

Workers are demanding greater pay transparency from their employer

Persistent wage gaps have more to do with an employer’s pay practices than how someone prepares their salary pitch. Federal and state laws aiming to promote pay equity have been around for decades, but company pay structures continue to create wage gaps for women and people of color that have barely budged in years.

Employees are becoming more vocal about pay equity in today’s labor market, Sullivan says, but there are still big disparities between the transparency employees want and what they’re getting. According to Glassdoor, 63% of U.S. employees prefer to work at a company that discloses pay information, but just 19% of employees say their company discloses pay ranges internally among all employees.

Companies may soon have to be more forthcoming about their pay practices anyway. A number of states and cities are passing legislation that requires employers to list salary ranges on job ads or disclose pay ranges to employees who ask for it.

As employers compete for talent, they’re finding that simply saying they pay competitively doesn’t mean anything unless they actually show the numbers to back it up.

“Especially in such a worker-focused job market, it’s a huge advantage for companies who embrace pay transparency and encourage people to talk about pay,” Sullivan says. “There’s a hunger among jobseekers and employees in finding companies that value, embrace and encourage salary transparency.”

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This tax season could help give many individuals and families access to more generous tax credits, thanks to temporary changes put in place through the American Rescue Plan.

The catch is you have to file a tax return. That may be a challenge for individuals who do not typically file.

Research New York University conducted in coordination with the IRS finds that promoting free tax-preparation services can help increase filing rates, which can also lead to more new filers claiming benefits such as the earned income tax credit or child tax credit.

“It seems so simple that if a benefit is administered through the tax code….you need to file, but that’s a critical barrier,” said Tatiana Homonoff, associate professor at New York University’s Robert F. Wagner Graduate School of Public Service, and a co-author of the research.

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“If we remove some of those barriers, we will almost automatically be increasing take up of these credits,” Homonoff said.

About 70% of U.S. households are eligible for free tax-preparation services, yet only about 3% actually take advantage of them.

The research, which was conducted in 2019, included sending 55,000 IRS letters to non-filers touting free tax services, such as the government’s in-person Volunteer Income Tax Assistance (VITA) program or those offered through software from companies like H&R Block or TurboTax.

Of those who received the letters in the experiment, 22% filed their taxes compared to a 21% filing rate for those who did not receive any communications. The one percentage point increase contributed to a 4% increase in the proportion of people who filed a return.

Consequently, individuals and families were more likely to claim any earned income or child tax credit funds for which they were eligible. Those who filed after receiving a letter received an average of $861 in earned income tax credit benefits and $976 in child tax credit benefits.

Enhanced tax credits for 2021

There is much more money on the table through those tax benefits and others this tax season.

The 2021 earned income tax credit for workers without dependents has been increased to $1,502, up from $538 in 2020. The credit is now available to eligible workers who are at least 19 years old, or 18 years old if they are homeless, and those ages 65 and up. It is available to filers with adjusted gross incomes below $21,430 if single and childless in 2021, or $27,830 if they have no dependents and are married and file jointly.

The child tax credit has also been increased for the 2021 tax year to $3,600 per child ages 5 and under, and $3,000 per child ages 6 through 17, up from $2,000 per child. Parents must fall under certain income thresholds in order to receive the full credit — $150,000 if married and filing jointly, $112,500 for heads of household and $75,000 for singles.

Additionally, people who are eligible but missed out on the third stimulus checks may also claim those funds through the recovery rebate credit. Those one-time payments were up to $1,400 per person.

In addition, the child and dependent care tax credit was also made more generous for 2021. Those who are eligible can claim up to $8,000 in expenses for one child or dependent, up from $3,000 in previous years, or up to $16,000 for two or more dependents, up from $6,000.

Still, estimates indicate individuals and families who typically do not file returns are at risk of missing out on these tax benefits.

‘Low cost intervention’

About 22% of all eligible taxpayers didn’t claim the earned income tax credit in 2018, according to the IRS.

Moreover, when the monthly expanded child tax credit payments began in July 2021, the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities estimated that approximately 4 million or more children in low-income families were at risk of not receiving the money.

While the IRS established a non-filer portal for those families to submit their information in order to access the money, it is unclear how many were able to do so by the end of 2021, according to the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities.

NYU’s research found that for every dollar spent by the IRS to promote free tax-preparation services, an additional $15 in tax credits were claimed.

“It’s a very low-cost intervention,” Homonoff said. “The benefits are huge for the individuals who do file and do end up claiming.”

The IRS offers free basic tax return preparation services to qualifying individuals through its VITA and Tax Counseling for the Elderly (TCE) programs.

The VITA program is generally available to people who earn $58,000 per year or less, while the TCE program is for individuals who are 60 and over.

To find out if you qualify for these services, or to find a VITA or TCE site near you, visit the IRS website.

As daily life gets more expensive, workers are having a harder time making ends meet.

While wage growth is high by historical standards, it isn’t keeping up with the increased cost of living, which is growing at the fastest annual pace in about four decades.

“Wages are up 5.1% over the past year, which is trailing the pace of inflation,” said Bankrate.com senior economic analyst Mark Hamrick. “Indeed, surging prices are stealing the show on the minds of consumers.”

When wages rise at a slower pace than inflation, those paychecks won’t go as far at the grocery store and at the gas pump — two areas of the budget that are getting particularly squeezed.

At the start of 2022, 64% of the U.S. population was living paycheck to paycheck, up from 61% in December and just shy of the high of 65% in 2020, according to a LendingClub report.

“We are all seeing the cost of everything shooting up,” said Anuj Nayar, LendingClub’s financial health officer. However, paying more for gas and groceries is hitting households particularly hard, he said.

“You’ve got to eat, you’ve got to commute; these are not discretionary expenses.”

Even among those earning six figures, 48% said they are now living paycheck to paycheck, up from 42% in December, the survey of more than 2,600 adults found.

“Depending on here you live, $100,000 may not get you that far,” Nayar said.

In San Francisco, for example, a family of four with a household of under $120,000 is considered low income. (Here’s a breakdown of how much you need to earn to afford to live in the country’s most popular cities.)

Americans now say they need to be making roughly $122,000 a year, more than double the current national average salary, to feel financially secure, according to a separate report from financial services website Personal Capital.

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Social Security benefits make up about 30% of elderly Americans’ incomes, according to the Social Security Administration.

For some beneficiaries, it can be 90% or more.

Yet many people do not think of those earned benefits, and the monthly checks that come with them, as a personal financial asset, according to Social Security expert Larry Kotlikoff, author of a new book titled “Money Magic: An Economist’s Secrets to More Money, Less Risk and a Better Life.”

The money you pay into the system is generally fixed, amounting to 12.4% of your earnings from work that are subject to Social Security taxes. Those taxes are split 50-50 between you and your employer, so you each pay 6.2%, up to a certain cap. In 2022, that tax is applied on up to $147,000 in wages.

Yet the money you may eventually get back from the program is not set in stone.

If you claim at the earliest age you’re eligible — 62 — you will receive permanently reduced benefits. If you instead claim at your full retirement age — generally age 66 to 67, depending on the year you were born — you will receive 100% of that benefit based on your work record. For each year you wait until age 70, you may increase your benefits by 8% through what is known as delayed retirement credits.

However, there are other ways you may increase your benefits even after you claim, according to Kotlikoff.

Suspend and restart your benefits

If you’re between your full retirement age and 70 and are already receiving benefits, you can still stop your monthly checks now and restart them later in order for your benefits to start growing again.

The bump-up you will receive is the delayed retirement credit for the time your benefits were suspended.

But beware: If your spouse or children are receiving benefits based on your record, their checks will also stop. And their benefits will not grow during that time, with the exception of adjustments for inflation, Kotlikoff said.

Alternatively, if you decide to claim but regret your decision, you may get a do-over through what is called a withdrawal of application.

This is only available so long as it has been less than 12 months since your decision to claim was made. However, the catch is that you will need to repay all the benefits you received — including spousal or dependent benefits that may have gone to your family — in order to reverse your decision. What’s more, you can only do this once in a lifetime.

Consider going back to work

When Social Security retirement beneficiaries are still working, they may be subject to a retirement earnings test if they are below their normal retirement age.

Benefits for people in that category whose earnings exceed a certain level will be reduced.

In 2022, the annual exempt amount is $19,560 for people under retirement age. But for people who will reach their retirement age this year, the annual exempt amount is $51,960, which applies only to the months preceding your birthday.

Notably, once you reach your retirement age, your monthly benefits are permanently increased to make up for the months when benefits were withheld, according to the Social Security Administration.

These benefit reductions coupled with other taxes workers pay may erroneously discourage beneficiaries from returning to work, even after their impact diminishes, Kotlikoff writes.

Earn more money

There’s another reason why working longer may increase your benefits.

Your Social Security benefits are calculated based on your covered earnings, or the jobs in which you paid taxes to the program.

Generally, the Social Security Administration ranks all of your earnings for those years and takes the highest 35 values. This ranking is used to form your average indexed monthly earnings, which is then used to calculate the benefit amount you would receive if you claim at your retirement age.

If you keep working, it is possible to increase your average indexed monthly earnings, and therefore the monthly benefits for which you are eligible.

This is particularly important for people with inconsistent work records, or who took time out of the workforce and have low earnings or even zeroes for some years.

That also particularly goes for high-earning older workers who earn above the annual cap for Social Security taxes ($147,000 in 2022).

“By earning more, regardless of how old you are, you can replace these weak spots with a positive or higher value,” Kotlikoff writes.

You see it in surveys reporting the support of perks like a four-day workweek or companywide shutdowns in the name of mental health.

At the tech hospitality company SevenRooms, they’re upping the ante with another type of bonus: As of Jan. 1, every new hire gets two weeks of paid time off (and health insurance coverage) before they start their first day with the company.

Paul McCarthy, SevenRooms’ chief people officer, says the plan came together last summer as employers became more desperate for jobseekers who are now more in-demand, and more burned out, than ever. Many employers have responded to the talent crunch by offering up big signing bonuses, higher pay, flexibility and other perks.

But as SevenRooms went into hiring overdrive in late 2021, McCarthy says he was “hearing a lot of people were having a hard time balancing the time they had in their lives. They were burned out between what they were wanting to do and having to choose to work.”

He heard of workers jumping into new jobs but immediately burning out. After all, not everyone can take time off without a paycheck. Making sure people can take time for themselves, and not go into financial strain to do so, is something employers can help with.

With the SevenRooms “Fresh Start” policy, McCarthy says giving new hires two weeks of paid time before their first day “shows people we’re committed to choice, and that time is the most valuable thing to all of us.”

A pre-PTO perk could become more common: New employees at PR agency MikeWorldWide get one week of paid time off before they start, CNN reports. If a worker resigns and gives four weeks’ notice, the company will give them an additional week’s pay after their last day.

SevenRooms also offers employees unlimited paid time off, though even that perk has its downsides. Some surveys show workers with unlimited time off end up taking fewer days than people with a traditional cap. “Unlimited PTO means nothing if you don’t take it,” McCarthy says.

So under a revamped time-off policy in 2022, SevenRooms actually set a minimum number of days employees are required to take off each year, and they’re incentivizing people to take extended breaks to more fully recharge.

Employees who’ve been with the company up to five years are required to take five consecutive days off twice a year, once between January and June, and once again between July and December.

Employees with five or more years of tenure are required to take 10 consecutive days off in the first half of the year, and another 10 days off in the second.

And more companies could encourage employees to take extended breaks. In spring 2021, PwC made headlines for offering a $250 vacation bonus to employees who take 40 consecutive hours of vacation at a time, up to once per quarter, for a total $1,000 yearly incentive.

McCarthy says SevenRooms currently has about 200 employees around the world, and it plans to expand to 300 by mid-year. They’ve hired 16 new people since January 1, and all of them have taken part in the Fresh Start Program. Many said they used the time to visit friends and family they hadn’t seen during the pandemic; others said it was their first meaningful break from work in years.

As of February, 71% of employees of SevenRooms’ employees have already scheduled some PTO time this year.

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Inflation is pushing up prices everywhere, from grocery store shelves to gas pumps.

It turns out that it’s also likely taking something away — that mood boost you may enjoy from so-called retail therapy.

Research from Duke University’s Fuqua School of Business finds that buyer’s remorse is more common when people are feeling financial stress.

“Many of us have this feeling like maybe my dollar isn’t going as far as it used to be,” said Gavan Fitzsimons, a professor of marketing and psychology at Duke’s Fuqua School of Business, during a LinkedIn Live session on research he co-authored with Rodrigo Dias and Eesha Sharma.

The research team set out to find out what happens if you feel your financial resources are limited and you buy something — a new TV, for example — for your family.

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Are you happier that you can enjoy the TV? Or are you less happy because you’re more financially stressed?

“What we find is, to the degree you’re feeling more financially constrained and make a purchase, you’re actually less happy with that purchase than you would have been if you weren’t feeling financially constrained,” Fitzsimons said.

That goes whether you’re high- or low-income, the research, which included more than 25,000 consumers, found.

The results showed those sentiments carried over to online reviews written by customers. Consumers who lived in ZIP codes that were financially strained, based on Census data, were more likely to leave negative reviews when they visited major restaurant chains, according to the research.

One reason for the discontent is that financial stress makes people more likely to think of the ways in which they could have otherwise spent their money. So if you buy a new blender for your kitchen, you may later wonder if you should have instead bought a toaster oven, for example.

“That opportunity cost, the thing I could have done with the money, weighs on me,” Fitzsimons said. “Because that weighs on me, I end up with this reduced happiness.”

So how can consumers feel better about their purchases?

“One thing we know for sure is we can plan,” Fitzsimons said.

By thinking through your consumption, you can make sure the purchase is a good one, and a justified use of the money, he said.

Other research suggests there may be yet another key to happiness — increasing the amount of cash you have on hand.

A field study of almost 600 U.K. bank customers found people with higher liquid wealth had more positive views of their financial well-being and, in turn, greater life satisfaction.

Generally, the aggregate amount of cash you have does not matter. Instead, the larger amount of your assets that you hold in cash, the happier you are, said Gary Zimmerman, CEO of MaxMyInterest, a company that aims to help investors access higher interest rates on their cash.

“It’s because of this psychological cushion in your mind,” Zimmerman said. “Knowing if all else goes to zero, at least I can pay my rent, my mortgage or my kid’s education, whatever the things are that are most important to you.”

In this installment, a 26-year-old shares how she makes $100,000 working as a project manager in Charlotte, North Carolina.

Lisa never thought she’d ever earn six figures, let alone before her 30th birthday.

The 26-year-old Charlotte, North Carolina, resident spent several years working in higher education and earned $34,000 as an assistant director at an area college, a position she tells CNBC Make It “sounds like it would be very fancy” but didn’t pay her enough to move out of her parents’ home.

In 2020, like many working professionals, she took a hard look at her career and thought of what she really wanted: more money, clear structure and a path to promotion. Higher ed no longer felt like a fit. So after doing some research online and networking on LinkedIn, she decided to pursue project management.

A year later, Lisa landed a project manager job with a manufacturing company and earns $100,000 a year, with an up to 20% bonus based on company performance.

Here’s how Lisa, who asked to be identified by a pseudonym in order to speak freely about her pay, nearly tripled her salary by tweaking her resume.

She changed her old job titles (with permission)

As Lisa began looking at job descriptions, she realized she had a lot of experience leading projects in higher education, but never held the title of “project manager.”

“I knew that it was going to be really hard getting my foot in the door with a non-project management experience in a corporate setting,” Lisa says. “And so I had to think about non-traditional ways to go about it.”

She could tailor the “experience” section of her resume to match the bullet points in job descriptions, but what would really make the difference would be to change her job titles.

So, she reached out to her previous bosses, told them about her new career goals and asked for permission to change her former job titles to “project manager.”

For example, in one old job, she held the role of “program manager for the office of diversity, equity and inclusion.” She called up her old boss and explained: “I ran events and managed these five programs. Would you feel comfortable if I say that I was the Office of Diversity’s project manager?”

Her former supervisor agreed, and so she updated her resume. Lisa says this likely helped her resume get through applicant tracking systems, and better reflected how many years of project management experience she had.

“I would never feel comfortable just putting that on my resume,” Lisa says. “But after talking to my references and hearing they were on board with it, that’s when I felt it was a good route.”

She asked LinkedIn contacts how much they earn

To push past the discomfort of discussing pay with others, Lisa remembered a previous experience where she learned a male colleague with the same job and qualifications as her was getting paid $10,000 more. She didn’t want to be in the same position again.

So, as she took classes to earn a project management certification via Coursera, Lisa networked with other project managers with 10 to 15 years of experience and tapped them for negotiating advice.

While online aggregates like LinkedIn and Glassdoor could give her a range, Lisa says, “hearing other people’s salaries helped me a lot more.”

First, Lisa shared the numbers she was expecting to negotiate for, based on her research. Then, she’d ask the other person for a range of what they made in their first project manager job.

“What seemed to help was asking about a previous role as opposed to what they’re making now,” Lisa adds.

She didn’t name a number

Lisa had always heard that job candidates shouldn’t name the first number in an interview. But when HR pushed her to state her salary expectations, she gave a range ($80,000 to $110,000) and aimed higher than some of the averages she found online ($76,000).

HR asked her again for a specific number, “and I said, ‘I really need to hear a little bit more about the role first,'” Lisa says.

After three rounds of interviews, Lisa got the offer: $100,000 with a 20% bonus based on the company’s performance.

“When they said that number, I don’t even remember what I said, I was in total shock,” Lisa says. She accepted the offer as-is: “I was happy with it because I know it was the upper part of the range.”

The money itself has been “life-changing,” Lisa says. She started the job in October 2020 and by January 2021 used her new earning power, plus a performance bonus and money she saved while living with parents, to move out and buy her own house.

Had she stayed in higher education, Lisa says, “you don’t make what I make now until you’re almost at retirement age. Now, I have to shift my financial goals, because I never thought I would make six figure, let alone like before the age of 30.”

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President Joe Biden called for passing a new federal paid family and medical leave policy in his State of the Union Address Tuesday night.

However, the timing of when such a law could be put in place is still up in the air.

The policy is part of Democrats’ sweeping social spending plan, Build Back Better, that has stalled on Capitol Hill. The party had aimed to pass the legislation through a simple majority. But opposition from some leaders, particularly Sen. Joe Manchin, D-W.V., has dimmed its prospects.

If paid family and medical leave were to go forward, it would bring the U.S. in line with most other developed nations that already have paid leave policies.

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The Family and Medical Leave Act of 1993 allowed workers to take unpaid time off.

Nine states and Washington, D.C., have enacted their own paid family and medical leave laws, up from four states in 2016, according to the Kaiser Family Foundation.

While some workers may be able to use these benefits, many are not. Currently, 79% of workers do not have access to a defined paid family leave or caregiving benefit, according to the Bipartisan Policy Center. Moreover, 60% do not have medical leave.

The Covid-19 pandemic helped invigorate interest in a national paid leave program. In 2020, a temporary program was created that expanded access to paid sick and caregiving days for Covid-related reasons.

Those measures have expired, and 8.8 million workers missed work in early January due to pandemic-related reasons, according to the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities.

Efforts to include paid family leave in the Democrats’ social spending plan have not always been smooth.

The paid leave plan was cut to four weeks from the original 12 weeks last year, after it briefly fell out of the proposal altogether.

Meanwhile, the cost of the plan has still been a concern cited by lawmakers like Manchin. Estimates from the Congressional Budget Office indicate the paid leave measure would cost around $205 billion over 10 years.

Still, some Democratic leaders and advocates were quick to praise Biden’s inclusion of the plan in his State of the Union speech.

“From strengthening our supply chains to achieving universal paid family and medical leave, the Ways and Means Committee will keep pushing to support workers and supercharge our ongoing economic rebound,” House Ways and Means Committee Chairman Richard Neal, a Democrat representing Massachusetts, said in a statement.

“The administration knows that a national paid leave policy and a care infrastructure will yield millions of jobs, billions in wages and trillions in GDP, and will help every working family in this country,” said Paid Leave for All, a national campaign of organizations fighting for paid family and medical leave, in a statement.

Many of them did so for less pay.

Last year, 53% of workers who left their jobs said they made less money in their new roles, according to a January online survey of 1,000 adults by Real Estate Witch.

The average pay cut was around $8,000 per year, according to the survey, but some workers indicated they would be willing to take an even bigger reduction. What’s more, those who quit in 2021 but have yet to find another job said they would take an average $23,000 pay cut, the survey found.

The catalyst for taking that lower-paying job? Overall satisfaction and work/life balance. More than 60% of those surveyed said they were happy in their new roles, and those who said they were very satisfied compared to their previous position jumped nearly 50%.

An earlier survey of workers from Paro, which provides accounting and finance solutions for businesses, focused on workers who do mental tasks for a living — such as programmers, pharmacists and lawyers. The survey found the group also prioritized their work/life balance over making more money.

“The pandemic and experiences they have had have shifted their values,” said Anita Samojednik, CEO of Paro. “Right now, the salary is just not enough.”

To be sure, many people who switched jobs have seen increases in take-home pay. A survey from The Conference Board found that about one-third of workers who left jobs during the pandemic are making 30% more in new roles. However, about 27% who switched jobs said pay was the same or less in their new job.

What to consider

Of course, taking a pay cut will directly affect your finances and may not be advisable right away, according to Tania Brown, an Atlanta-based certified financial planner and founder of FinanciallyConfidentMom.com.

If you’re considering taking a job where you will make less money, there are a few things you need to consider before you do so, she said.

First, ask yourself why you want to leave your current job, she said. Are you burned out? Will a different job or career be more fulfilling? Are you planning to move?

Contemplating the answers to these questions will help ensure that you don’t make a rash decision you’ll later regret, said Brown.

“Emotions have no logic, and you’re trying to make a math decision based on emotion,” Brown said. “It’s just not going to turn out.”

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Additionally, if you’re only a few months from paying off debts or hitting a similar financial goal, you may want to hold off.

Plus, you may realize you don’t want to leave your job, but instead would like more flexibility or a change in your role. If that is the case, now is a great time to ask for a different schedule, to take on different responsibilities or to try to introduce other flexibilities into your job, Samojednik said.

She said she’s seen many people dip their toes into freelancing in addition to a full-time job to test the waters of a new gig or becoming their own boss.

Doing the math

If you discover that switching jobs is truly what you want, then you have some important math to do, Brown said.

That includes doing a deep dive into your current budget needs and financial goals and seeing if you can achieve your objectives on a smaller income.

Brown suggests you should over a trial period of a few months, say, try to see if you can meet your goals on smaller take-home pay. That test run could help you decide if a pay cut is right for you.

You should also think about how making less will affect your long-term goals, Brown said. If you’re saving up for a house or plan on having a baby, how will your new income change the timelines on those milestones? If it will take longer, is it worth it for you to wait?

If you’re part of a family, you should also consult the other members in your household before making your move. That means talking with your spouse and children about what changes would take place, such as fewer trips or less money for extra activities — and deciding if it works for everyone.

“This has to be a family decision because your decision is impacting everyone in the household,” said Brown.

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When Lauren Simmons introduces herself to new people, she usually says she works in finance.

But really, the 27-year-old is an author, producer, podcast and TV host, angel investor and board member of several financial companies.

It’s a lot for one person, but Simmons is used to taking control of her career. She’s already made history several times over: In 2017, at the age of 22, Simmons became the youngest full-time female trader on Wall Street, and the second African American woman trader in the New York Stock Exchange’s 229-year history.

But while at the NYSE, Simmons learned she was being paid just $12,000 while male colleagues with the same job and qualifications were making upwards of $120,000. From that point on, she made a commitment to herself that she’d never make less than $120,000 a year.

Simmons left the trading floor in 2018 and formed an LLC to manage all of her projects.

In the last few years, she has secured deals on a book, movie, TV show and two podcasts. Her most consistent income comes from speaking engagements (she averages two per month), and she can earn up to six figures on brand deals.

No two days look the same. Simmons works long hours and on weekends, taking meetings as early as 3 a.m. and as late as 11 p.m. because she works with people all over the world. Her most recent project is a hosting job with the streaming series “Going Public,” which requires filming the series itself and traveling to promote it.

In 2021, Simmons moved to L.A and earned $650,000. In 2022, she’s on track to earn $1 million.

Extreme savings

Simmons grew up in Marietta, Georgia, with her mom, twin brother and younger sister. She credits her mom’s strict budgeting for how she learned to save 85% of her income, which she began doing while earning just $12,000 in New York City. It was barely enough to pay for transportation while she lived with family in nearby New Jersey, and she didn’t spend any money on going out.

Simmons admits her saving strategy today isn’t the most traditional, but it works for her.

She sends all of her earnings into a savings account and for the most part doesn’t touch it. She also waits as long as possible to deposit her earnings. Simmons closed a few speaking engagement deals in January but will have her business manager hold onto the checks until just before they expire, so she won’t actually see that income until March.

“I like for my money to be out of sight, out of mind so I won’t spend it,” she says.

She’ll sometimes transfer money to a separate checking account, which she keeps at $2,000 for everyday spending. She’ll give herself a little more for birthdays and holidays, but never allows herself to spend more than 15% of her earnings each month.

Despite making a name for herself in the financial world, Simmons doesn’t feel like an expert all the time. She only began investing in the stock market during the 2020 pandemic downturn. She keeps her emergency fund, savings and retirement money all in one bank account. And she unapologetically splurges on Bath & Body Works candles: “Any time they have a sale, I am there.”

As for managing her own money, “I think that there are days that I’m decent at it,” Simmons says, but “I know that there’s a lot to learn every time I get to a different phase in my life.”

How she spends her money

Here’s a look at how Simmons typically spends her money, as of January 2022.

• Rent: $3,850, paid for one year upfront and includes Wi-Fi, water and parking
• Transportation: $215, including car insurance and about $20 to charge her Tesla, which she leases under her LLC
• Pet: $200 for dog food and grooming
• Discretionary: $182 includes shopping, entertainment and household goods
• Food: $165 on groceries and dining out
• Health insurance: $100, paid for one year upfront
• Utilities: $43 for heat and electricity
• Subscriptions: $24 for meditation app Hay House, Hulu and The New York Times

Simmons’ earnings fluctuate wildly from $12,000 to $150,000 a month, so she plans ahead for big expenses. She paid a year’s worth of her rent upfront when she moved in, for example. She pays for health insurance a year at a time and car insurance six months at a time.

Another big constant in her budget is her 7-year-old Maltese, Kasper. She spends about $200 on him each month between grooming and pet food. “He lives a very luxurious lifestyle,” Simmons says.

Otherwise, Simmons keeps her budget pretty lean. In January, she spent $182 on shopping and entertainment, $165 on food (mostly groceries from Whole Foods) and $24 on a few subscriptions. She shares streaming-service logins with family and contributes Hulu to the pot.

Given her hectic schedule, making time for health and wellness is a non-negotiable. Simmons prefers hiking, doing yoga and exercising outdoors — it’s a big reason why she moved to L.A. She meditates every morning, anywhere from 15 minutes to two hours, to stay grounded and focused.

Simmons believes it doesn’t have to be expensive to take care of yourself. “I don’t want to turn into that person that is spending thousands of dollars in wellness, because I think you can do it for free at home,” she says.

That said, she does splurge on herself “once in a blue moon”: She recently treated herself and her mom to a seven-day trip at a wellness retreat as a gift.

Becoming a millionaire

This year, Simmons expects to earn $1 million across brand deals, partnerships, speaking engagements, and returns on investing in companies.

But even for someone who loves talking about money, it still feels awkward to say out loud.

Simmons knows all too well that when young women succeed at work, “we don’t get the same kudos as our male counterparts.” But those reminders only make her want to talk about her accomplishments and pay even more.

“That’s why we’re trying to fight societal norms and have these open dialogs and change the mindset of people,” she says. She wants to eliminate the stereotype that “young, successful women who make a lot of money are bragging.”

The million-dollar milestone carries a lot of personal significance, too: “I’m the first person in my family to graduate with a college degree,” she says. “My family and I have come a long way, and I’m super grateful.”

Looking ahead

Simmons couldn’t have predicted how much her life would change from the first day she walked onto the NYSE trading floor. But she still has big plans ahead to negotiate new projects for herself and invest in more startups.

Given the turns in her career thus far, it’s hard for her to say what she expects her life will look like in the next five to 10 years. But she hopes to have an investment property in Florida and maybe a house of her own somewhere else.

“Outside of that, I have no idea, but I’m excited to watch this video five to 10 years from now and to see where I’m at — maybe running for president.”

What’s your budget breakdown? Share your story with us for a chance to be featured in a future installment.

Check out:

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• ‘I went from making $12,000 to $650,000—in 4 years’: How this 27-year-old former Wall Street trader saves 85% of her income
• Former NYSE traders Lauren Simmons and Martina Edwards talk breaking barriers in finance

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The Covid-19 pandemic caused unexpected financial shocks for many Americans, particularly low-income service workers who were at higher risk of losing their jobs.

The emergency situation prompted four community-based organizations to develop a guaranteed income program for certain residents of Washington, D.C.

Starting in July 2020, the program gave $5,500 to participants in the capital’s Ward 8, an area that was disproportionately hit by the effects of the pandemic.

Recipients could opt to receive the money either in one lump sum or five monthly payments of approximately $1,100 each.

The program, named THRIVE East of the River, continued through January of this year and included 590 households.

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Those participating typically had less than $25,000 in income. About 98% of the participants are Black and 85% are women.

Even prior to the pandemic, the residents of Ward 8 struggled with food insecurity, lack of access to quality health care and high housing costs. The area has also struggled with legacy effects of segregation and disinvestment in majority Black neighborhoods.

For example, for many years Ward 8 did not have a grocery store until one opened in 1998.

When the community organizations began to enroll area residents with the promise of no strings to the $5,500, they were met with a mixture of mistrust and joy.

“At first, it was like, ‘We can’t trust this.’ And then the second reaction is, ‘Somebody cares,'” said Mary Bogle, principal research associate at the Metropolitan Housing and Communities Policy Center at the Urban Institute.

The THRIVE program is the latest of many guaranteed income programs to pop up in cities and local communities across the country. Many of the programs are inspired by Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., who advocated for direct cash support as a way to combat poverty.

The proliferation of these experiments comes as the federal government authorized an unprecedented level of financial support for individuals and families during the pandemic. That included enhanced federal unemployment benefits and three economic impact payments.

While that aid has expired, lawmakers are currently weighing whether or not to extend the enhanced child tax credit, which let parents receive monthly checks of up to $300 per month last year.

The Urban Institute, a supporting partner in the THRIVE program, published a research report on the results of the experiment this week.

More than half of the participants spent a substantial amount of the money they received on housing. Food was the second spending priority, the research found.

More than 30% of those who enrolled in the program had lost their jobs because of the pandemic. At the same time, 32% of participants said they were working for pay when they enrolled in the program, while 45% said at least one adult in their household was gainfully employed.

While more than 30% of the program’s participants were eligible for unemployment benefits due to pandemic-related job losses, only 22% applied for those benefits. Of those who applied, less than half received any aid.

The THRIVE program provided services to help participants apply for the federal benefits for which they were due.

More than half of the participants who applied for unemployment benefits said the process was either somewhat or extremely difficult.

Some may not have applied because they were not aware they were eligible, Bogle said.

“Folks who live in marginalized communities especially and who are low income tend to be the hardest to reach with public benefits,” Bogle said. “The systems do not have good mechanisms for reaching them.”

Individuals and families who are receiving government benefits, through programs like the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) or housing subsidies, often have to fulfill multiple requirements in order to access those resources.

Moreover, the aid often comes in the form of vouchers, rather than cash.

The results from the THRIVE program show that low-income individuals and families can responsibly decide how to allocate direct payments for their needs, Bogle said.

Ultimately, the goal of this research and other guaranteed income experiments is to inspire changes to federal policies that often hamstring low-income Americans and made it difficult for them to get out of poverty, she said.

“Our safety net is very judgmental, but it does not show a lot of good judgement,” Bogle said.

“If we designed a safety net or a system to help people in this country that was based on evidence, we would not have the systems the way they look now.”

To that point, 66% of organizations recently surveyed by Payscale said a pay equity analysis is a planned initiative in 2022, a 20% increase over last year. Pay equity is essentially equal pay for work of equal or comparable value.

Just over half said they plan to conduct either a gender- or race-based pay equity analysis specifically — the first time this has been a majority in the 13-year history of Payscale’s Compensation Best Practices Report. The pay data and software firm surveyed 5,578 organizations from November to January.

Only 36% of respondents knew their gender pay gap, and only 29% knew their racial pay gap.

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“Workplace equity has really become such an important topic,” said Ruth Thomas, Paysale’s pay equity strategist.

Overall, women earn 82 cents for every dollar earned by men. When men and women with the same employment characteristics do similar jobs, women still earn 2 cents less — 98 cents for every dollar earned by an equivalent man, a separate Payscale report found. Over a 40-year career, that disparity costs women $80,000, according to the firm.

Meanwhile, Black women earn 97 cents for every dollar earned by a white man when accounting for similar jobs and qualifications, while Black men have a controlled pay gap of 99 cents.

Most companies are at the early stages of addressing the issue.

“A lot of them are really at this stage focusing on either making the commitment to pay equity, getting internal alignment on how to address pay equity, and then actually getting on and doing that pay equity analysis,” Thomas said.

Pay remediation tends to happen as part of an annual review, while structural and systemic issues could take three to five years to address, she said.

For global medical technology and services company Medtronic, the journey toward pay equity began in the 1990s. As a federal contractor, it had to comply with federal rules. However, pay equity has since matured into a more strategic priority, said Carol Surface, Medtronic’s chief human resources officer.

In the U.S., the company now boasts 100% gender pay equity and 100% pay equity for ethnically diverse groups.

“We just fundamentally believe that having an inclusive environment, where people are treated fairly, drives innovation,” Surface said.

Yet even once pay equity is achieved, it requires ongoing attention.

“You have to do the analysis every year with a focus on every country, every job, and it is perpetual,” Surface said. “It is not a ‘one and done’ exercise.”

War for talent

For those seeking new jobs as part of the current “Great Reshuffle,” pay transparency and company culture are important factors they consider.

Just over a quarter of respondents to a global LinkedIn survey cited diversity and inclusion as one of the top areas for companies to invest in to improve company culture. A 2020 survey by Glassdoor found that 76% of job seekers and employees said a diverse workforce is an important factor when evaluating companies and job offers.

“Creating more equitable and inclusive workplaces has really become a key employer brand issue, especially for those looking to hire and retain top talent,” Payscale’s Thomas said.

Employees want to know what employers’ records are on fair pay, and can research it, she noted.

Yet there is concern that this war for talent could worsen inequities as companies compete over candidates.

“The good practice we’re seeing is where employers are saying, ‘Okay, I’m bringing someone in, let me understand what the fair range is for this job,'” Thomas said.

If someone comes in way above the pay level of existing talent, they make an effort to adjust pay for them.

“There are also people that aren’t doing that, obviously,” she said.

To be sure, large companies may have an easier time boosting pay, said Emily Dickens, chief of staff and head of government affairs for the Society for Human Resource Management.

“A small company may realize the disparity but is also in the red, so how do you address that disparity immediately?” she said.

“You can’t just identify today that there is a problem and think it will be fixed tomorrow, unless you are a company that is sitting on a lot of cash.”

While Medtronic has reached full pay equity in the U.S., there is still much more work ahead, Surface said.

That includes getting equal representation at every level in the organization and in every job.

“That is a long-term commitment,” she said.

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Today’s workers are often tasked with juggling multiple financial goals.

Between saving for retirement, paying off student debt and planning for your own children’s education, it can be difficult to know whether you are on track.

Betterment is taking steps to try to make it easier for employers to help workers manage those priorities with the addition of two new offerings focused on student loans and 529 college savings plans.

Betterment at Work, which provides 401(k) plans to employers that have between two and 1,000 employees, is adding new tools that companies can opt to provide alongside their 401(k) plans.

The first is a student loan feature that will let workers access information on the various debts they may have through different providers in one location. Additionally, it will help them evaluate which balances to pay down first, see repayment projections and track their participation in student loan matching programs, if their employers offer them.

Student loan debt is “a barrier to entry to a 401(k) and to retirement savings in general,” said Kristen Carlisle, general manager of Betterment at Work.

“People are focused on paying off loans and feel as if they can’t take full advantage of other benefits that their employers are offering,” she said.

Betterment is offering the student loan feature in partnership with a company named Spinwheel, which provides debt programs that can be embedded into apps or services.

Separately, Betterment is adding a 529 feature that will allow workers to see how investing tax-advantaged money toward these plans will shape up over time and in comparison with their other goals.

That addition comes as Betterment has entered into an agreement to acquire the partner and customer relationships of a company named Gradvisor, a provider of personalized college savings plans.

Employers may opt to take on the cost of the benefits or to share it among their employees.

Betterment’s expanded platform comes as the pandemic has made financial wellness a challenge for many workers. At the same time, many employers are looking to expand their benefits in an effort to recruit and retain talent.

“People are not just looking at compensation as their base salary anymore,” Carlisle said.

“People are really thinking about ‘what are you offering me in terms of the other benefits that help me achieve my goals and manage my life?'” she said.

A survey conducted by PwC last year found 63% of employees have experienced greater financial stress since the pandemic began. Younger generations are feeling the brunt, with 72% of millennials, 68% of Gen Z and 62% of Gen X reporting higher levels of financial pressure, compared with 46% of baby boomers.

The survey also found 87% of employees want their employers to provide them with help with their personal finances.

Another survey conducted by TIAA found that just 22% of adults give themselves high scores — a 9 or 10 out of 10 — on financial wellness.

Meanwhile, 21% of respondents gave themselves the lowest scores — between 1 and 4 out of 10.

Those who are most likely to feel confident about their finances include men and wealthy, older and retired people.

The Social Security Administration recommends beneficiaries visit its website as the first stop for service as the agency works to reopen its field offices.

But many people are reluctant to apply for benefits online. Only about half of retirees have used that method since 2013, according to the Center for Retirement Research at Boston College.

That’s even as the Social Security Administration has ramped up its tools for online applications, and it’s expected to continue to do so following a recent executive order signed by President Joe Biden.

There’s also another valuable resource — newly redesigned online benefit statements — that may hold key information for boosting your Social Security retirement benefits.

The statements can be accessed online by creating a My Social Security account. People age 60 and up who do not currently receive benefits and who have not signed up for an online account should receive their statements in the mail three months before their birthday.

With the redesigned layout, the Social Security Administration aims to make it easier for workers to find information at a glance and simplify its complex programs. Those statements are also now accompanied by fact sheets tailored to specific age cohorts.

The agency recommends that workers of all ages check their statements annually for accuracy. That goes for workers of all ages who contribute to the program — from 18 to 70 and up.

Those records also hold clues for how to get the most out of your benefits, experts say. Plus, there’s additional information that’s not included in those statements that you should seek out.

Retirement benefit estimates

The redesigned statements now have a blue bar graph including benefit estimates when someone is claiming at nine different sample ages.

If you claim at age 62, when you first become eligible, you take permanently reduced benefits.

The amount of your benefit checks will increase for each year you wait up to age 70. If you claim at your full retirement age — generally 66 or 67, depending on your year of birth — you will receive 100% of the benefits you earned. Wait past that age, and your benefits will increase even more. That stops at age 70, as there’s no increase for delaying benefits past that point.

The chart included in the statement shows your projected monthly retirement benefit amount from ages 62 through age 70.

“The blue bar form is a welcome addition for workers who need information to help them make good choices about their benefits,” said David Freitag, a financial planning consultant and Social Security expert at MassMutual.

Earnings record

The new statements also include a table of a worker’s earnings history, with earnings taxed for Social Security and Medicare broken out separately.

However, the new statement includes only 20 years’ worth of earnings, while the previous statement format included all of the years on a worker’s earnings record.

A full earnings history is available on workers’ personal My Social Security accounts. Experts say looking at just 20 years is limiting and it is important to take the extra step to see your full earnings history.

Social Security calculates your average monthly earnings based on your 35 highest-earning years.

But errors can happen. The Social Security Administration and other experts advise workers to check their earnings history to make sure it shows the correct amount earned each year and that none of your income has been omitted.

“That’s a valuable exercise for people to do to make sure they don’t have any misreported earnings,” said Joe Elsasser, founder and president of Covisum, a Social Security claiming software company.

“Sometimes people have a zero, and they shouldn’t have,” he said.

Seeing your full earnings history can also help tell you how much of your benefits may be adjusted if you worked in jobs where you earned a pension and did not pay Social Security taxes. Those offsets are known as the Windfall Elimination Provision or Government Pension Offset and affect both you and your family’s benefit eligibility.

“The only solid way to test for WEP/GPO offsets is to see the entire earnings history,” Freitag said.

Disability and survivor benefits

In addition to retirement benefit eligibility, the statement also provides estimates as to what your monthly income would be if you claimed disability benefits.

There are also estimates for how much monthly income through survivor benefits your eligible spouse or minor children may receive if you pass away.

Medicare eligibility

The benefits statement will also let you know whether you have earned enough credits to qualify for Medicare at age 65.

While it is not mandatory to enroll in Medicare Part B when you reach that birthday, not doing so may trigger delays or higher monthly premiums in some circumstances, the Social Security Administration notes.

A measure to raise the state’s minimum wage to $18 began to collect signatures in February. If the campaign, called the Living Wage Act of 2022, gets 700,000 signatures, it will be on California’s November ballot.

“The purchasing power of the minimum wage declines over time,” said Joe Sanberg, an entrepreneur and sponsor of the legislation. “That means that we have to keep fighting for an increased minimum wage to make sure that working people can afford life’s basic needs.”

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If signed into law, the measure would gradually raise the minimum wage in California to $18 from $15 by 2025. That means that it would increase to $16 in 2023 and $17 in 2024. This would apply only to businesses with more than 25 employees – those with fewer than 25 employees would reach $17 an hour in 2025.

“The reality in America is that most people who are working full time live on a knife’s edge of financial ruin,” said Sanberg, adding that a higher minimum wage would help support people of color and essential workers.

Hourly workers will get a boost

If the measure succeeds, it will give some 5.5 million people in California a raise of more than $6,000 per year. California’s minimum wage was officially increased to $15 per hour at the beginning of 2022, though some parts of the state have set their own minimum wages higher.

The hike would also apply to tipped workers and continue to be adjusted to keep pace with the cost of living past 2025.

Even though many businesses have raised wages to attract workers during the so-called Great Resignation, it’s important to have policies in place that sets a floor for pay, said Saru Jayaraman, president of advocacy group One Fair Wage.

“It’s essential that we raise wages right now; it’s a historic moment where workers are refusing to work for $15 an hour,” she said. “It’s not enough anymore.”

In addition, it’s important to consistently raise compensation because workers are being hit with the highest inflation seen in 40 years. While that has led to wage hikes, having a law in place ensures workers that businesses won’t cut their pay later if inflation cools off, Jayaraman said.

The big picture

At the start of the year, 26 states, including California, raised their minimum wages to $15 an hour.

The Biden administration initially included a $15 federal minimum wage in Covid-relief legislation but it was dropped. President Joe Biden was, however, able to raise the minimum wage to $15 for all federal contractors, a pay bump that went into effect Jan. 30.

Of course, not all are in favor of raising the minimum wage. Democrats removed raising the federal minimum wage from legislation last year after an amendment from Sen. Joni Ernst, a Republican from Iowa. Ernst argued that raising wages during the Covid pandemic would hurt small businesses that were all ready suffering.

In addition, hiking pay could potentially lead to job losses. A 2021 report from the Congressional Budget Office found that raising the minimum wage to $15 an hour by 2025 could lead to 1.4 million job losses. However, it would also lift 900,000 from poverty, according to the report.

The Raise the Wage Act, which would gradually increase the federal minimum wage to $15 an hour by 2025, has passed in the House but remains held up in the Senate.

The federal minimum wage, currently $7.25, has not been hiked since 2009. However, even $15 is not enough for many workers to afford the cost of living in the U.S., according to a recent CNBC analysis of cost-of-living data assembled by researchers at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

That’s prompted advocates for higher wages to organize at the state level, said Jayaraman. One Fair Wage is looking to raise the minimum wage in 25 U.S. states by 2026, she said. Most Americans favor higher wages, and many states have been able to pass their own legislation to boost worker pay.

“Given that we’re not seeing the movement in Congress, we took it upon ourselves,” she said. “You have to take advantage of the moment.”

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The economy is recovering but workers are still having a hard time making ends meet.

While real wages are on the rise, they can’t keep up with the increased cost of living, which is growing at the fastest annual pace in about four decades.

Over the past year, inflation eroded pay by 1.7%, according to the U.S. Department of Labor.

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At the end of 2021, 61% of the U.S. population was living paycheck to paycheck, down slightly from a high of 65% in 2020, according to a recent LendingClub report.

Even among those earning six figures, 42% said they were living paycheck to paycheck, the survey of more than 3,000 adults found.

“Increasing prices are impacting a lot of Americans,” said Shelly-Ann Eweka, senior director of financial planning strategy at TIAA. “Higher wages will help workers have additional cash flow to cover expenses.”

And yet, “with higher incomes, often comes higher expenses,” she added.

This year, companies expect to give their employees another 3.4% raise on average as the competition for talent intensifies — but that may not be enough.

Americans now say they need to be making roughly $122,000 a year to feel financially secure, more than double the national average, according to a separate report from financial services website Personal Capital.

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When Charlene Latsha calls the Social Security Administration, she’s placed on hold for so long that she hangs up.

Latsha, 70, of Pottstown, Pennsylvania, has been trying to reach the government agency about her husband’s application for retirement benefits. Though he has been disabled and unable to work for the past two years, he is unable to claim disability benefits. But as he turns 65, the couple decided now would be a good time for him to claim his monthly retirement checks.

When Latsha logs on to her husband’s online account, a message reading “account has been suspended” comes up. When she calls Social Security’s 800 number, she typically waits on hold for about 45 minutes to an hour before she gives up.

“You call, and you’re on hold forever,” Latsha said. “For three weeks now, I’ve been trying to get in touch with them.”

The extra income from her husband’s benefits would be a “big help” to the couple’s financial situation.

Still, Latsha doesn’t blame the Social Security Administration.

“It’s not that they’re not doing their job,” Latsha said. “It’s just that they [have] an overwhelming amount of calls.”

The Covid-19 pandemic prompted the Social Security Administration to pivot to mostly phone and online services starting on March 17, 2020. Since then, the agency’s more than 1,200 field offices have offered limited in-person services by appointment only. Customers have often had to submit paperwork by mail.

Those processes have not always been smooth, the Social Security Administration Office of the Inspector General has found. Specifically, the agency needs to improve its timeliness and efficiency with regard to processing mail, including original documents provided as proof of eligibility, an investigation found.

While the average wait time for Social Security’s 800 number was around 13.5 minutes in 2021, some months have had longer delays. In January, for example, the average wait was around 40 minutes.

In December, Rep. John Larson, a Democrat from Connecticut and chair of the House Ways and Means Subcommittee on Social Security, wrote a letter to Kilolo Kijakazi, acting commissioner of the Social Security Administration, to ask “what actions the Social Security Administration is taking to strengthen overall customer service.”

“The Covid-19 pandemic has demonstrated that in many cases — and particularly for low-income seniors and people with disabilities — there is often no substitute for individualized, in-person assistance,” Larson wrote.

In response, Kijakazi wrote a letter in January outlining the steps the Social Security is taking as it works toward an agencywide March 30 reentry date.

That includes taking steps to reduce the amount of sensitive documents people need to mail in, increase on-site staffing and in-office appointments, and conduct outreach to people who have difficulty accessing services and benefits, such as those who are low-income, homeless, mentally ill or not proficient in English.

‘It’s taken too long’

Field offices are slated to reopen to the public in early April.

In the meantime, the Social Security Administration is emphasizing that people who need help start with the agency’s website.

“As we expand in-person availability, we strongly encourage the public to continue to go online at ssa.gov, call us for help if they cannot complete their business online, and schedule appointments in advance,” a spokesperson said.

But for people like Erica Ellis, 43, of Virginia Beach, Virginia, who has been trying to help her sister claim disability benefits, there are no immediate answers.

Her sister, Dorothy Pritchett, 48, a schoolteacher from Newport News, Virginia, has been unable to work since she had a stroke in August. She applied for disability benefits shortly thereafter. While the Social Security Administration website shows that the benefits have been approved, her sister has yet to receive a payment.

“Here we are going into March, and she still doesn’t have her money,” Ellis said. “It’s taken too long.”

The experience, along with Ellis’ own stalled pursuit for her own disability benefits, has made her question the sincerity of the program.

“I really think that they want you to be dead,” Ellis said. “That way, they don’t have to give it at all.”

Funding issues

The lack of in-person guidance through field offices has left a hole for people who rely on those government employees to help them understand what benefits they may qualify for, said Mary Johnson, Social Security and Medicare policy analyst at The Senior Citizens League.

“It’s those front-line people who may be the only ones for one of the biggest financial decisions a person will make in their entire life,” Johnson said.

Social Security advocates are hoping that the pandemic helps raise awareness of service issues that predate the pandemic. That includes too few field offices and short staffs at existing locations, according to Nancy Altman, president at Social Security Works.

“The pandemic didn’t cause these problems, but it really shined a spotlight on them,” Altman said.

Congress, which appropriates funding for Social Security, could increase the amount of money the agency is able to spend on services without making a big dent in its budget or advancing the depletion date of the funds it relies on to pay benefits, she said.

With more baby boomers due to reach retirement age and others newly eligible for survivor benefits due to Covid-19 deaths, the agency is poised to see increased demand.

“Certainly in a moment like now, they really should dramatically increase the funding, because it’s logical,” Altman said. “There’s a real need.”

In this installment, a 34-year-old shares how he makes $125,000 working as a project manager in San Diego, California. 

Alister Shirazi’s ultimate career goal is to never have to work for anyone ever again. And he believes the technical skills he learns from his contract work will get him there.

Shirazi, 34, currently works as a project manager in an independent contractor role for a tech company. Though it means he has a boss for now, he sees it as a way to learn new skills and add some big names to his resume, which makes him more competitive in the industry.

Right now he earns $60 per hour for a 40-hour workweek as part of 12-month contract; that comes out to just shy of $125,000 per year.

Here’s why Shirazi views contract work as an investment in his long-term career goals.

Getting into project management

Shirazi studied economics in college, earned an MBA and launched iPhone repair businesses in California and Brazil, where he spent time after business school. After a few years, he sold his businesses to move back to the states and build up his savings. He took a business operations job with a start-up in the Bay Area with an $80,000 starting salary, “which I thought was great, but is actually not enough after taxes to make it work.”

He got interested in coding after he was assigned a menial task he really didn’t want to do: “I automated it using Python programming and didn’t tell anybody,” Shirazi says. “Eventually I told my boss and asked for something else to work on, because I was getting bored.”

Shirazi learned more about coding and data science through free community college classes and low-cost online courses. He eventually transitioned into a project manager role to apply his technical skills to the business.

But his pay didn’t budge for nearly two years. He talked to his coworkers about their pay, and they encouraged him to advocate for a raise. “I made a whole presentation [to my boss] about my accomplishments and goals and said I wanted a raise within two weeks,” Shirazi says.

The two weeks stretched into months, but Shirazi finally went from earning $80,000 to $100,000, and then to $120,000 with a bonus. “From that point, I didn’t ever want to go backwards,” Shirazi says, “so I only looked for opportunities that would take me upwards in my career and salary.”

Landing a job in 4 days

Once Shirazi had more technical skills and project management experience on his LinkedIn profile, recruiters began reaching out. He suddenly had offers to join tech companies he always admired. In July 2020, he landed a six-month contract with one as a project manager for $60 an hour.

There are some things he doesn’t like about contract positions. He doesn’t get health benefits, retirement plan contributions, stock options or other perks of a full-time employee. The pay for contract jobs is often fixed, even before any interviews, so there isn’t room to negotiate.

He also finds job leads through a contracting agency, which takes a cut from his hourly rate. But it’s similar to working with a recruiter, Shirazi says: If they like you, they’ll keep you at the top of their roster and work to find you new jobs once your contract is over.

For now, Shirazi focuses on the benefits of taking short-term contracts, like how they’re a lower barrier to entry into some big-name tech companies where he can learn about the industry, gain new skills and network.

“I’m happy that I have the opportunity to bounce around because it gives me a diverse skillset, and I can add it to my personal brand equity,” he says.

That personal branding helped him land his current gig. Shirazi took an informational interview for his current job on a Tuesday and got an offer by Friday.

The $125,000 he makes after the recruiter’s cut is “enough” for now, Shirazi says. He works from his home in San Diego, but says the pay wouldn’t be enough if he had to commute to an office.

“I think of it as using my salary to finance my dreams, which is to open other businesses,” he says. “I’m OK to get my money, learn and get out.”

‘Anybody could do this’

Shirazi says he’s open about his salary as someone who broke into tech “because I want people to know that anybody can do this.”

Being a good project manager means being a generalist in a lot of ways, Shirazi says. Most importantly, “you have to be resourceful, a critical thinker, a planner and a good communicator.”

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The sisters are the creators behind QuickHire, a hiring platform that connects workers to service and skilled-trade jobs. In November, QuickHire raised $1.41 million in an oversubscribed round of funding, making Gladney and Muhwezi-Hall the first Black women in Kansas to raise over $1 million for a startup, according to AfroTech.

It’s a feat for any entrepreneur, but especially when you consider that Black female startup founders received just 0.34% of the total $147 billion in venture capital invested in U.S. startups through the first half of 2021, according to Crunchbase.

When the sisters started their venture in March 2020, Gladney was pregnant with her third child, and Muhwezi-Hall ended up in the hospital after contracting Covid-19. They weathered uncertainties of the pandemic, saw racial unrest during the George Floyd protests, penny-pinched to invest $50,000 of their own savings, and experienced microaggressions while fundraising. A beta version of QuickHire launched in the fall of 2020, and they released a finished product to the public in April 2021.

Today, QuickHire matches more than 11,000 job seekers with jobs at 60 mid- to large-size service industry companies in the Wichita, Kansas, and Kansas City metro areas. During the Great Resignation, QuickHire data is also proving how businesses must provide better jobs to the working class — jobs with good pay, stable hours, health insurance and future careers — if they ever hope to fill openings.

CNBC Make It spoke with the two sisters for their best career advice, and how it helped them launch their very first $1 million business.

‘Don’t ever let anybody see you sweat’

The biggest piece of career advice Gladney takes to heart comes from a former boss: “Don’t ever let anybody see you sweat.”

“There’s just so much power in not giving other people the power in knowing that they won any situation over you,” Gladney says.

Gladney says the experience of pitching QuickHire and raising money hasn’t been without experiencing bias and microaggressions — situations “where people have said or done something where, if we’d shown them they got to us, I think they would have succeeded in stopping us.”

Gladney remembers pitching to investors and feeling like they had “every card stacked against us.” They applied to but got turned away from accelerator programs, “and it left a bad taste in our mouths. The reasons for why we were turned down just weren’t very clear. And it made us wonder, is it because we’re Black women doing this?”

It’s an all-too-common scenario for women and founders of color in the VC world, where the majority of investors are white men. “We felt like we had to come to the table with more revenue or more validation than our counterparts, because we knew that we weren’t going to be able to raise if we didn’t make it even more comfortable for [investors] to take a chance on us,” Gladney says.

Gladney and Muhwezi-Hall nearly gave up on trying to get into an accelerator program until they had one motivating meeting with a managing director with the accelerator TechStars Iowa. They got into the accelerator, and their growth took off.

Gladney says she relies on a few core people, including her sister, her husband and her father, to manage the frustrations that come with being a Black female founder in the tech space.

“They get it all from me,” she says, “but it helps me go out there and fight the world.”

‘You’ve got to go to grow’

Muhwezi-Hall says the best advice she’s ever gotten was that you have to “go to grow.”

“Sometimes in life, and especially in careers, for you to find those opportunities of advancement and to widen your horizon, you have to get out of your comfort zone,” she says. “You have to take a chance on yourself.”

For Muhwezi-Hall’s part, the seeds for QuickHire were actually planted back in 2017, when she was a college and career counselor at a Los Angeles high school. She had plenty of resources to offer to those bound for college, but few for students headed to service or skilled trade jobs. Roughly 108 million people, or 71% of the labor force, work in the service sector — why weren’t there better ways to connect them with stable careers other than filling out paper job applications?

“This was an idea that we sat on for so many years,” Muhwezi-Hall says, adding that Gladney often encouraged her to bring it to life. The urgency of the pandemic, when she saw tens of millions of service workers losing their jobs, caused her to reprioritize her idea.

Muhwezi-Hall and Gladney got to work on building QuickHire in March 2020. By August, Muhwezi-Hall moved with her husband from L.A. into Gladney’s basement in Wichita, Kansas, for seven months to continue building. Muhwezi-Hall and her husband have since relocated to Chicago, and the sisters work together remotely and during in-person visits.

“At some point, you have to move,” she says. “And if you are afraid to move, you’ll never grow. So that’s something that I apply to everything: You’ve got to go to grow.”

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High inflation overshadowed a big increase in wages over the past year, amounting to a nearly 2% smaller paycheck for the average worker, according to federal data published Thursday.

Employers have raised wages at about the fastest rate in 15 years, as they compete for talent amid record job openings and quit levels. But consumer prices for goods and services are rising at their fastest annual pace in four decades, eroding those gains for many Americans.

As a result, “real” hourly wages (earnings minus inflation) fell by 1.7%, to $11.22 from $11.41, in the 12 months through January 2022, the U.S. Department of Labor said Thursday.

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Net weekly earnings fell more over the same period — by 3.1%, to $387.06 from $399.52 — after accounting for a shorter workweek, likely due to pandemic-related impacts on worker schedules.

“The price pressures on households just don’t end,” according to Greg McBride, the chief financial analyst at Bankrate.

However, substantial pay boosts in some industries, like leisure and hospitality, means some workers still came out ahead.

And data suggests the trend may be reversing — the average worker saw their pay outpace inflation by 0.1% from December to January. It was the second consecutive monthly improvement in “real” earnings.

“You’re seeing it beat inflation, just barely,” said Elise Gould, a senior economist at the Economic Policy Institute, a left-leaning think tank.

If that monthly trend holds, workers would start to see an increase in their purchasing power, Gould said.

However, the direction of inflation and wages in coming months is difficult to predict.

The Federal Reserve is expected to start raising interest rates in March to bring inflation to heel — though it’s unclear how aggressively Fed officials will do so. And many economists believe inflation will moderate in 2022 if supply-chain issues improve and elevated consumer demand for physical goods decreases, for example.

It’s also unlikely the current pace of wage growth will continue if the pandemic recedes and workers are drawn back into the labor pool, Gould said. That would increase the supply of workers, making it easier to hire.

Inflation and wage growth

The Consumer Price Index, a key inflation measure, jumped 7.5% in January from a year earlier, the fastest rate since February 1982, the Labor Department reported Thursday.

The index accounts for household costs across many goods and services, from alcohol to fruit, airfare, firewood, hospital services and musical instruments. On average, a consumer who paid $100 a year ago would pay $107.50 today.

Meanwhile, average hourly wages grew 5.7% in January relative to a year earlier, to $31.63, according to a separate Labor Department report, published Friday.

But inflation and pay don’t impact households equally — these are average statistics.

About half of the inflation growth in the past 12 months is attributable to energy (like gasoline), vehicles (new and used cars) and “pandemic-affected services” like airfare, hotels and event admissions, according to the White House Council of Economic Advisers.

Consumers who didn’t buy such goods and services would have kept more of their paychecks intact.

Monthly growth in consumer prices have decelerated since October, suggesting a slowdown in inflation. But inflation has also become more broad-based, affecting household staples like food, utilities and housing.

“Not only have home prices jumped 20% in the past year, but now many rents are too, rising 0.5% in the past month alone,” McBride said. “Nothing squeezes household budgets more than the outsized increases we’re currently seeing on costs for shelter and rent.”

Rank-and-file workers in some industries have seen their pay growth eclipse inflation, sometimes by a wide margin.

For example, leisure and hospitality workers (those at restaurants, bars and hotels) saw average pay jump 15%, to $17.08 an hour, in the 12 months through January 2022. Earnings jumped by 9.1% among the rank-and-file in transportation and warehousing, too.

Some of the annual inflation is also due the so-called “base effects,” Gould said. This means the current rate of inflation is being judged against January 2021, when consumer prices for gasoline and other items were depressed during the pandemic — amplifying the headline figure, she said.

As inflation climbs to historic highs, rising gasoline and other consumer prices are among Americans’ top concerns, a survey finds.

Yet more than one-third of respondents — 35% — have no investment account or any investments at all, the survey from eMoney Advisor found, even though investing would be a good way to have their money grow faster than inflation.

When asked what their biggest concerns were for 2022, the top responses included gas prices, with 43%; followed by paying bills, 42%; and inflation, 40%. Other worries included retirement savings, with 33% of respondents, and taxes, 32%.

“This survey is really showing that there’s a lot of financial anxiety that’s caused by inflation, market volatility and just that uncertainty coming out of the pandemic and the impact that that’s had on everyone in their everyday lives,” said Celeste Revelli, a certified financial planner and director of financial planning at eMoney.

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The survey, which included 2,000 adults ages 18 and up, was conducted in mid-December.

Government data for January released Thursday showed inflation notched a new record. The Consumer Price Index, which measures the costs of consumer goods, climbed 7.5% compared to one year ago, the highest reading since 1982.

Moreover, the national average for a gallon of gas hit a seven-year high last week, coming in at $3.423, according to AAA.

The eMoney survey respondents who are investing are turning to assets including stocks, with 48%; cryptocurrencies, 43%; mutual funds, 41%; and real estate and bonds, each with 36%.

But the lack of participation in any investments from more than a third of respondents points to bigger financial problems Americans may be dealing with in the current economic environment.

“What we’re uncovering here is a deeper need for Americans who currently aren’t being served by financial services,” Revelli said.

“There’s maybe barriers they’re dealing with, such as living paycheck to paycheck and not being able to save or invest,” she said.

Another survey from TIAA found that just 22% of respondents gave themselves the highest scores on financial wellness — a 9 or 10 on a scale of 1 to 10. Meanwhile, 21% of respondents gave themselves the lowest scores of 1 to 4.

When it comes to beating inflation, financial advisors generally recommend investing in equities, which have a record of surpassing consumer prices over time.

And other tips, such as negotiating down your debts, paring back your lifestyle and reducing your gas consumption where you can, can also help, experts say.

Angela Muhwezi-Hall, 32, first thought of the idea in 2017 when she was working as a college and career counselor for high school students in Los Angeles. She had plenty of resources to offer to those bound for college, but few for students headed to service or skilled trade jobs. Roughly 108 million people, or 71% of the labor force, work in the service sector. Surely, there had to be a better way to set young adults up for success other than helping them fill out paper job applications.

When the pandemic hit in March 2020, she saw tens of millions of Americans like her students losing their essential jobs during the pandemic — disproportionately Black, Hispanic, Asian, Indigenous, female, non-degree-holding and low-wage workers.

Muhwezi-Hall tapped her sister Deborah Gladney, 34, and got to work on a solution: a hiring platform that would connect historically overworked and overlooked people with solid jobs in the service and skilled-trade economy as it recovered from pandemic lockdowns. Muhwezi-Hall moved into Gladney’s basement in Wichita, Kansas — an underserved market in the tech scene — so they could build it together. (Muhwezi-Hall has since relocated to Chicago with her husband.)

After two trying years, the QuickHire founders and their users are coming out ahead.

Underserved workers get their due

Gladney and Muhwezi-Hall spent the summer of 2020 taking their idea from pitch to product. The beta version of their app launched in the fall — “it’s like someone hearing their song on the radio for the first time,” Muhwezi-Hall says of its release — and officially to the masses by April 2021.

The positive response was swift: People were securing their first jobs since losing work during Covid, landing positions within a day and getting their families back on their feet.

“We were helping people find the right fit, where they could stay with and grow with that company. That was just such a proud moment to hear,” Muhwezi-Hall says.

Over time, especially through the Great Resignation of 2021, they saw that once abundant job-seekers were becoming scarce. Applicants could be more choosy. They were looking for better pay, yes, but also health insurance during a global pandemic, and more predictable hours to be able to plan their lives outside of work.

“Gone are the days of thinking you’re just going to have endless amounts of people applying to your positions,” Muhwezi-Hall says. “People think differently about their careers now. They have more power than ever. This is how it should have always been — people should always have felt like they have power over their career and what they really want to do.”

‘Employers are needing to step up their game’

Today, QuickHire matches more than 11,000 job seekers with jobs at 60 mid- to large-size service industry companies including Fuzzy’s Taco Shop and Homewood Suites by Hilton. They’re concentrated in the Wichita and Kansas City metro areas and plan to expand in the Midwest this year.

Record-high turnover in the service industry has been a long time coming, Muhwezi-Hall says, “so now employers are needing to step up their game as to what they’re providing their employees.”

QuickHire has the data to help businesses do better by their workers, Gladney says. “We can see what the average pay is in an area for a certain role. This type of information can help employers know, if they try to insert a low-ball hourly rate, our system can detect it. We can say: This is actually $4 below the average in your area, so you’re probably not going to get good candidates.”

Million-dollar founders

In November 2021, QuickHire raised $1.41 million in an oversubscribed round of funding, making Gladney and Muhwezi-Hall the first Black women in Kansas to raise over $1 million for a startup, according to AfroTech.

But getting there wasn’t easy. For one, they are based in Wichita, not exactly where venture capitalists look for the next big thing.

And second, as Black women, they are building in a world that notoriously shuts out people who aren’t white or male. Black female startup founders received just 0.34% of the total venture capital spent in the first half of 2021 in the U.S., according to Crunchbase. And before 2021, only 93 Black female founders had ever raised $1 million or more in venture capital, up from 34 founders as of 2018, according to ProjectDiane, a report on the state of Black and Latina women founders by the organization DigitalUndivided.

Gladney and Muhwezi-Hall first funded QuickHire through $50,000 of their own savings, and then through an angel investor. But to really scale it, they’d need venture capital. They applied to accelerators but it “felt like we had every card stacked against us,” Gladney says.

“We did get turned away, and it left a bad taste in our mouths,” she adds “The reasons for why we were turned down just weren’t very clear. And it made us wonder, is it because we’re Black women doing this?”

They thought of going back to self-funding until they had one motivating meeting with a managing director with the accelerator TechStars Iowa. They got into the accelerator in July 2021, and their growth took off.

While they’re proud of how far QuickHire has come, Gladney says that “going into it, we felt like we had to come to the table with more revenue, more validation than our counterparts, because we knew we weren’t going to be able to raise if we didn’t make it even more comfortable for them to take a chance on us.”

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The stereotypical cryptocurrency owner is a high-earning white male. However, research finds that other demographics — particularly minorities — are also turning to bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies.

A recent survey conducted by Morning Consult found that while 69% of all U.S. adults are white, only 62% of cryptocurrency owners are.

Meanwhile, 24% of cryptocurrency owners are Hispanic, while just 16% of U.S. adults overall identify as Hispanic.

Other minorities comprise a smaller share of crypto owners, with Blacks owning 8% and Asians and other ethnicities 6%.

Crypto owners are also overwhelmingly male, with 70%, versus 30% female.

“The majority of crypto owners are white, but they’re also disproportionately Hispanic,” said Charlotte Principato, financial services analyst at Morning Consult.

Separate research from the Pew Research Center recently found that Asian, Black and Hispanic adults are more likely than white adults to have invested in, traded or used cryptocurrency.

One explanation for the high adoption rate among Hispanics is that they are not only more likely to own cryptocurrency as an asset in their investment portfolio, but also as a means for paying for things compared to white cryptocurrency owners, Principato said.

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“There are communities out there that need better ways to pay,” Principato said. “And that is one of cryptocurrency’s big promises, especially for bitcoin.”

Another reason may be that cryptocurrency is booming in Latin America, particularly in countries like Argentina and Mexico, where inflation is higher than the U.S. That could inspire use by U.S. Hispanics who want to send money to those countries or who are just influenced by the enthusiasm, Principato said.

Bitwage, a provider of cryptocurrency payroll invoicing and benefit services, has seen its Latin American business grow dramatically in the past couple of years, particularly in Argentina, Brazil and Mexico, according to CEO Jonathan Chester.

Workers in the U.S. can sign up and choose to receive their pay in stablecoin or bitcoin and have it go directly to a wallet they own, bypassing a traditional bank account, Chester said.

Those services have the potential to help underserved markets, such as Hispanic workers who want to have some of their salaries automatically sent home to their families in other countries. If Bitwage were to put those kinds of services in place, it could offer minimal fees compared to other more traditional money transfers, Chester said.

Morning Consult’s research found that cryptocurrency owners were more likely to use alternative financial services, including purchasing a money order, taking out a payday advance or payday loan through businesses other than a bank or credit union.

“These are the folks who know how to get what they need done,” Principato said.

Because the transactions they choose may be more expensive or inconvenient at times, it makes sense that they’re open to using cryptocurrency. “They’re looking for better ways to pay,” Principato said.

Ben Weiss, CEO of bitcoin ATM company CoinFlip, said that the company’s goal is to make sure everyone in the U.S. has the same access to cryptocurrencies.

Consequently, the company is putting its kiosks in neighborhoods across the U.S., regardless of whether the area is wealthy or poor, he said.

CoinFlip does not track its users by ethnicity. Weiss estimates they are roughly 50-50 male-female, with an average age of 40.

Most users are turning to the company’s machines to facilitate investments, rather than day-to-day transactions.

“Whether you’re unbanked or not, whether you’re investing or not, we just want to be there for the average person to get crypto,” Weiss said. “We don’t want to see the same issues of wealth inequality.”

The bulk of remote jobs are generally customer service or sales marketing jobs, which can be done pretty easily through telework. But as companies extend their work-from-home policies and, in some cases, adopt permanent ones, they’re seeing what other parts of their workforces can thrive remotely.

The biggest increase in remote listings are for HR and recruiting roles, says FlexJobs career services manager Brie Reynolds. There’s a huge need to hire HR workers who can hire other employees during record-high turnover of the Great Resignation.

Letting HR workers be remote means companies can hire them faster, they can expand their candidate pool beyond their usual geography and it can be a good sign that they’re invested in the future of remote work (who better to understand the needs of a remote worker than a remote HR business partner?).

The second fastest-growing field for remote listings on FlexJobs is accounting and finance jobs. Reynolds says this signals that businesses need numbers people to wrangle ever-changing budgets under pressure in the recovering pandemic economy. Many businesses are having to offer more money to hire and maintain employees — all while keeping pace with rising consumer demand for goods and services.

And not all of today’s remote jobs are concentrated in junior positions. According to the FlexJobs database, 11% of remote jobs are entry-level, 60% call for mid-level experience, 20% are at the manager level and 9% are for senior leaders.

“Businesses are changing at a rapid rate and trying to hire people to predict what will happen in the future, and how to plan accordingly,” Reynolds says.

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Legendary civil rights activist Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., grew up and preached in the Old Fourth Ward of Atlanta.

Soon, that neighborhood will also be the site of a new guaranteed income experiment named in his honor.

The program is slated to provide more than $13 million in transfers over the next two years to 650 Black women in that neighborhood and other suburban and rural areas of Georgia.

Its name — In Her Hands — was inspired by a King quote.

In a 1967 speech, “Where Do We Go From Here?” given in Atlanta, King said, “The dignity of the individual will flourish when the decisions concerning his life are in his own hands, when he has the assurance that his income is stable and certain, and when he know that he has the means to seek self-improvement.”

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In Her Hands is the result of a task force including local community leaders including Pastor John Vaughn, executive pastor of the Ebenezer Baptist Church, where King once served as co-pastor alongside his father and where his funeral was held, following his assassination in April 1968.

When the task force was formed two years ago, it was not clear that guaranteed income would be a recommendation from the participating community leaders, said Hope Wollensack, executive director of the Georgia Resilience and Opportunity (GRO) Fund, which has teamed up with non-profit organization GiveDirectly to launch the initiative.

Since then, however, monthly child tax credit payments and stimulus checks have helped change the conversation around direct income, Wollensack said. Moreover, the recommendation from the task force was clear as to the potential benefit of this kind of financial assistance.

“Not only is it putting cash in the hands of women, but greater agency and choice in the hands of women and their families,” Wollensack said.

Guaranteed income programs inspired by King’s legacy are growing.

Mayors for a Guaranteed Income has more than 60 participating cities around the country. It was founded in 2020 by Michael Tubbs, then-mayor of Stockton who launched the first program in that city.

Separate guaranteed income programs have also been established to specifically target mothers, including the Magnolia Mother’s Trust in Jackson, Mississippi, and more recently, the Bridge Project in New York City.

Magnolia Mother’s Trust is the only program to include just low-income Black mothers. It provides $1,000 per month for 12 months to women living in federally subsidized housing in Jackson.

Results following the second cohort of recipients found that the mothers’ ability to pay their bills on time increased to 83% from 27%; those who had emergency savings climbed to 88% from 40%; and their ability to pay for food went to 81% from 64%.

Georgia’s new In Her Hands program plans to provide guaranteed income specifically to Black women and study how the money impacts their lives.

Half of the program’s 650 participants are slated to receive an up-front lump sum payment of $4,300 and then $700 per month for 23 months. The other half will receive $850 per month for 24 months.

The program will start in Atlanta’s Old Fourth Ward neighborhood, and then expand to other predominantly Black suburban and rural areas of Georgia.

The first payments are scheduled to go out in the second quarter.

Distribution of the money will be handled by GiveDirectly, which has delivered cash to recipients in programs in the U.S. and other countries. The non-profit organization is currently running the world’s largest universal basic income experiment in Kenya.

“Our research underpins the fact that when people have big lump sums, they will use that to build assets or reduce debt,” said Sarah Moran, U.S. country director for GiveDirectly.

“When people have recurring payments that are guaranteed, they will use that to reduce income volatility month to month,” Moran said.

Erica Brown, 41, of Jackson, has been receiving monthly checks through Magnolia Mother’s Trust since last April and said the monthly income has been a blessing. The extra money allowed her to quit her second job as a security officer at a hospital, which gave more time with her children, ages 20 and 5. She has also been able to pay all her bills and build up savings, which she anticipates will still be there when the program ends.

One key measure of success for the In Her Hands program will be whether it helps alleviate poverty for Black women in Georgia.

Black women in the state are two times more likely to live in poverty compared to white women, according to a 2019 report from the Georgia Budget & Policy Institute. Yet Black women have participated in the state’s labor force at higher rates than white women for centuries, due to enslaved labor and sharecropping, according to the research.

The stakes are high as the In Her Hands program works to both help change those legacy poverty issues Black women face and live up to King’s legacy of fighting for justice, Wollensack said.

“I think it really in many ways felt like Dr. King is watching,” Wollensack said. “What choices are we going to make and who are going to be and how are we going to live up to our values?”

People are generally most concerned with feeling unprepared or worrying about an unpredictable outcome, says Andres Lares, managing partner at Shapiro Negotiations Institute.

These nerves are normal and healthy, but it could help to think less about what you could lose in a negotiation and more about what you can do to prepare, Lares tell CNBC Make It: “Even if you can’t get everything you want, it’s about doing everything you can to walk away knowing you’ve done your best.”

He recommends thinking through all the possible scenarios that could come up in the negotiations process, and to have a script ready for how you’ll respond in each case. Here are a few ways to do that.

Discussing salary throughout the hiring process

First of all, when and how you should bring up pay during job interviews will depend on your situation. If the job description already lists the range, or if you’re confident about your number and have a lot of interviews lined up, you might bring it up in first or second rounds, says Octavia Goredema, an author and career coach.

You could ask the hiring manager to share their budget for the job, or you might be strategic about naming your desired range. Tap online resources and your professional network to get an idea of your absolute minimum salary, your desired target and a stretch number you want to negotiate up to.

By the time you have that offer in hand, you have a lot of leverage to negotiate. “You wouldn’t be in this room or on this call if you couldn’t do that role. Recruiters wouldn’t have time to waste if they didn’t think you could deliver on it,” Goredema says. “Now we’re discussing not only what’s required of you, but what you’re looking for.”

If the offer is way below your minimum

If HR makes you an offer that’s significantly lower than what you want, like in the tens of thousands of dollars, Lares says it’s worth pointing out.

Leading with gratitude can make a difficult conversation more palatable: “Thanks for thinking of me for this role and sharing the pay. Unfortunately, that’s significantly lower than what I would have expected for this.”

Next, gauge whether they can be flexible on the offer. Remind yourself, and the other party, that a negotiation is working together to reach a compromise. You can frame it as: “I want to be respectful and not waste your time, but I’m also interested and want to make this work. What’s the flexibility on pay?”

Or, it’s possible the hiring manager doesn’t understand your qualifications or years of experience. Remind them of your candidacy and ask: “Is there a different title or level you’re hiring for that’s a better fit and aligns with my expected pay?”

If the offer is on the lower end of your range

If the offer is a few thousand dollars short of your actual desired number, it’s time to make your counteroffer. At this point, you should have a firm number in mind based on market data and what you personally expect from the role.

Again, Lares says, first thank them for the offer. Express your interest in the role and the expertise you’ll bring into it. It can help to focus on all the other reasons why you’re excited to take the job, like the chance to grow a team or launch a new product, says Mabel Abraham, a Columbia Business School professor. You can mention how salary is just one component in your decision-making process, and then state (or re-state) your desired salary and why it’s in line with the market as well as your qualifications.

Finally, emphasize that you want to work with the other person to find a mutually agreeable number, Lares says. You can keep it open-ended: “What can we do to bring the offer closer to my expectations?”

If the pay matches or exceeds what you want

Good news: HR makes you an offer, and it’s in line with what you want. Congrats! But don’t accept it right away. Thank them for the offer and say you need time to think it over, Lares says.

Consider if everything in the compensation package aligns with what you want. Is there room to negotiate beyond salary like a signing bonus, vacation time, work-from-home flexibility, health coverage, child-care support or something else?

This tends to be a major part of the negotiations process where women lose out, says Abraham, who studies gender inequities in the workplace. As much as a racial and gender wage gap exists for base pay, it widens even more when accounting for non-salary benefits, she says. For example, one recent analysis commissioned by The Wall Street Journal found women are less likely than men to own company stock, and when they do, they own fewer shares. The difference could mean hundreds of thousands of dollars in “lost” earnings over time.

If you choose to continue negotiating additional non-salary perks, focus only on the benefits most important to you and understand how much you’re willing to be flexible.

What to do if you think you low-balled yourself early on

Maybe you’ve gotten to the offer stage and realize the range you gave earlier was actually too low. But now the company is offering you that number. Is it too late to revise your salary expectations?

Lares says you can bring it up, but frame it less about the money and more about not fully understanding the job itself.

You can say something like: “At the beginning of the hiring process, this was my understanding of the job. Now at this point in the interview process, this is my understanding of the job. In light of that, I think this second role is worth Y. I want to be collaborative — am I understanding this correctly?”

Leave the conversation open to a possible misunderstanding, Lares says. “If you approach the conversation as, ‘let’s make sure we’re talking about the same role,’ it allows you to be more sensitive in the way of asking for more money when you do come to an understanding.”

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That’s because those increases in pay are up against the worst inflation in 40 years.

Employers struggling to retain talent amid the so-called Great Resignation anticipated giving out larger pay increases and bonuses in 2021. More than half of workers received a raise last year, according to a Joblist survey of more than 2,700 employees in the U.S.

Nearly 60% of those that got raises saw a bump of less than 5%, according to the survey. Another 27% saw a 5% to 10% increase last year. Only 16% got a raise of 10% or more.

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However, the prices of goods and services has gone up faster, which means that the earning power of most workers has been eroded. In December, inflation surged at the fastest annual rate since 1982, rising 7% on the year, according to data from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics.

“Inflation is something that [workers] should be cognizant of when they’re evaluating current pay at their company, evaluating potential raises and considering other options,” said Kevin Harrington, CEO of Joblist.

The breakdown

Of course, the headline inflation numbers don’t mean that all consumers are being hit with prices that are 7% higher across the board — instead, the government measures a basket of goods and services to gauge rising cost.

In December, certain things drove most of the yearly gains in inflation. Gasoline was nearly 50% more expensive than it was 12 months ago, and energy services, including electricity and piped gas, were up more than 10%. The prices of used cars and trucks have increased more than 37% on the year, but new vehicles are up nearly 12% as well.

Rising prices for vehicles won’t impact consumers who don’t drive or aren’t in the market for a new car, so overall they might see more moderate inflation personally. Still, most Americans will be hit by rising costs in at least one area: The price of food, both at home and out, has increased more than 6%. Housing costs have also risen more than 4%, which for many, makes up their largest monthly expense.

What can be done

Inflation, pay and the state of the labor market at this point in the pandemic have caused millions to leave their jobs. Some of them are doing so to make more money and offset some of the rising costs they’re seeing.  

“It’s unnerving for people to see things that they’re used to buying in their monthly budget and see that go up and feel like it’s something they don’t have much control over,” said Craig Birk, a certified financial planner and chief investment officer at Personal Capital.       

Nearly 79% of workers said they thought they could make more money by switching jobs, according to the Joblist survey. Another study from Personal Capital found that 77% of those considering leaving their current jobs are doing so to find better pay at another company.

“Job switching is often a way to achieve an even bigger pay increase,” said Harrington, adding that workers should consider their options now if they’re looking for higher pay.

Going forward

If inflation continues to run hot, that could mean those raises are further eroded. To keep rising prices in check, the Federal Reserve will likely raise interest rates this year, with the first bump potentially coming as soon as March.

Still, it’s possible that employees will continue to see higher raises through 2022. This year, companies are planning to give an average 3.4% raise to workers, according to a survey from Willis Towers Watson.

Employees are optimistic, as well, even if they aren’t looking to move to different job. More than half of workers said they’d expect a raise in 2022 if they stay with the same company, according to the Joblist survey.

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Disclosure: NBCUniversal and Comcast Ventures are investors in Acorns.