A study by leading Job Portal reveals that 55% Gen Y and 53% Gen Z employees were disappointed with their first-drawn salaries. Dissatisfaction with salary is not new, however the reasons may have changed with changing aspirations of different generations.
“This disappointment with salaries is due to many factors – the lack of a proper benchmark tool is one of the reasons which are not readily acknowledged. However, if you can assess your worth on the basis of what the standard payout is in a particular sector for a particular role, you will be saved of that disappointment when you actually get the job offer,” says Vikas Deep Verma, Head of Product and Marketing, TimesJobs.
The TimesJobs study based on the first job journey of Gen Z and Gen Y workforce also reveals that Gen Z is quicker in getting their first jobs in comparison to Gen Y. On asking how soon they were able to find their first jobs 49% Gen Z were able to get a job in less than two months while most Gen Y’ers (45%) took three to six months.
Nearly 46% Gen Y workers applied to 5-10 jobs before finally getting hired and 52% Gen Z workers applied to 10-15 jobs before ultimately accepting a job offer. This shows that the ability to access opportunities through the largest pool of job listings has increased manifold in the new generation.
Another interesting insight is that Gen Z professionals are more aware of their market worth as 58% of them were able to negotiate their salaries before accepting the final job offer. This is a steep increase when compared to 40% of Gen Y’ers who were able to do the same.
However, despite being able to get a job offer sooner compared to Gen Y and also being more aggressive on the salary negotiation front, 53% Gen Z workers still claim dissatisfaction from their salaries.
Nishikant Gupta, an IT professional with a renowned MNC said, “It has happened many times that I get a job offer and they ask me about my salary expectation and I am clueless. Even when I got what I asked for – it ultimately resulted in dissatisfaction since I had nothing concrete to benchmark my salary expectations on.”
The general dissatisfaction expressed by working professionals in this study clearly indicate that Nishikant is not alone, there are many candidates like him who are unaware of their true worth.
Interestingly, 50% Gen Y and 43% Gen Z also said they continued in their first jobs, for longer because they were getting good increments.
“This study highlights that it boils down to your cash-in-hand component. It is essential to be aware of what must you ask for, at your level, in your function and in your industry to have a good career. It is wise to evaluate your worth in real-time by using the TimesJobs salary benchmark tool so that you know what you must ask in your next job and be happy about it also,” advises Verma.
This study was conducted by TimesJobs with inputs from over 1000 working professionals across India.