HUNT VALLEY, Md. (TNND) — Americans are the least satisfied with their pay right now than they have been since November 2021.
A new survey shows they don’t seem to have hope of getting a solid raise or job that pays more, so they’re just lowering their expectations.
The lowest wage on average people would be willing to accept for a new job, according to the New York Federal Reserve, is now $74,236. In December, that number was $82,135.
Fewer people are saying they’re satisfied with wage compensation, benefits and promotion opportunities. And, fewer people think they’ll get a job offer in the next four months.
It’s a far cry from the confidence workers had during and in the years after the Covid-19 pandemic. Employees were “quiet quitting” and finding jobs that would either pay them more or let them work remotely.
“The pandemic really upset the proverbial economic applecart,” says Mark Hamrick, a senior economic analyst at Bankrate. “Workers essentially felt like they owned the world for a while.”
He says much of the data coming out now reflects a normalization of the economy and job market after the era of Zoom calls and supply and demand imbalance.
But it also reflects the conversation swirling about a possible recession. Economists are repeatedly raising their recession odds, citing stock market trends, less retail activity, rising unemployment, big businesses cooling off their projections, and consumer sentiment, among other factors.
Much of the uncertainty comes from President Donald Trump’s stop-and-start trade policy. He’s gone from sweeping tariffs for pretty much all countries to pausing them and jacking up tariffs on China, one of America’s top trading partners, to claiming countries are coming to the table to make new trade deals and then threatening more.
Tariffs have a direct consumer impact in the form of higher prices (these have an estimated $2,000–$3,000 loss per U.S. household according to multiple studies). They also increase manufacturing costs for U.S. companies, prompt retaliation and boycotts, and cause possible stagflation (the combination of slow growth, high unemployment, and high inflation).
Hamrick says this shows in the workplace data.
“I think the main thing that’s on the mind of many workers right now is asking themselves the question, ‘What happens next?’ And if you don’t have a high degree of confidence about what might be happening next, the next thing you fear is that something bad may happen,” he says. “We’re going to be in an environment for quite some time where volatility and uncertainty are with us, and that is not consistent with the kind of confidence that people need to have, either to be consumers or be employers who are hiring more people.”
Hamrick says, right now, employers are pretty confident their workers won’t quit, compared to how they likely felt during the pandemic, because in this economy, workers need a sure income. But, he stresses it probably won’t be that way in a few years, calling economic downturns “inevitable parts of economic cycles.”
It’s always a good idea to keep paying down debt, save for emergencies, and pay into retirement, he says.
But what do these sorts of pessimistic attitudes mean about the productivity and efficiency of the companies themselves?
Hamrick says it’s up to the employers – and employees – themselves.
“There’s no doubt about the fact that the macro economy plays a role in satisfaction, or perhaps confidence that our careers will move along either a constructive or steady path,” he says. “But there’s a great deal that individuals and organizations can do to affirm all of that.
“I think that it’s prudent for workers to think about the fact that, whether they might be a few or more years away from retirement, you have to show up.”
