The Millennial Moment: How we are uniquely positioned to get the careers we want, with the
compensation we deserve, and forever change the workplace experience for generations to come

Millenials and inequality

This moment simply feels different.  There’s good reason for that.  It’s a moment in history that is unprecedented for our generation.  Working professional millennials have become accustomed to struggling for the career they want. 

I’ve previously written about how we are the generation that came of age during the dot-com bust, emerged from high school in a post-9/11 world, graduated college into a major recession, and many of us have grown our families in the wake of a global pandemic. This wasn’t the world we anticipated or expected.  The 1990s were an era of unprecedented economic growth and hope.  We bought into the myth of the American dream that hard work and education would be sufficient to ensure social mobility.  

For the last few decades, we’ve scrambled to begin careers, establish ourselves, and find economic stability.  This has been especially true for women and people of color.  In fact, I’m drafting this post on Black Women’s Equal Pay Day, which signifies how many extra days the average Black woman must work to earn as much as a white man in a year. 

Because Black women earn only $.63 for every $1 earned by a white man, they must work an additional 8 months to catch up.  White women also trail behind white men, earning $.79 cents on the dollar.  Through it all, our generation has mastered pivoting, and we are now increasingly occupying middle- and upper-management positions in the professional world. 

After 10-20 years of scrappily cobbling together our careers, we’ve become essential and are currently the largest generation in the US labor force. 

Enter COVID. 

The pandemic hit just as millennials were hitting their professional stride.  What couldn’t be predicted was the hiring boom that would follow the lockdowns. 

Job openings have been at historic highs in 2021.  The total number of job openings exceeded new hires by 3.28 million in May 2021—the highest in over 20 years.  Increased compensation, improved benefits, flexible scheduling, and accommodations for parents are all becoming commonplace practices for employers to attract and retain employees.  This is in direct contrast to the working world we, as a generation, emerged into as new professionals—where “job offers were rescinded, full-time opportunities became part-time without benefits, and many new hires were the first fired.”

It’s been hard-won, but now is finally our moment to fundamentally change expectations for working professionals.  If your employer isn’t providing you with what you want and need, join the millions of people who are leaving their jobs, confident they can find a better fit for themselves, their values, and their families.