‘Hustle culture makes you broke’: This ‘anti-work’ TikToker says that even a $100K salary is ‘lessening in value over time’ — so stop working hard, putting in overtime. Is she right?
You’ve no doubt heard plenty of financial experts say that cash is losing value due to inflation. But did you realize that the same can be said about your salary?
TikToker Gabrielle Judge thinks it all boils down to work ethic.
The self-proclaimed “anti-work girlboss” explained in her viral video why a $200,000 salary may not be as high as it sounds once you compare the hourly wage breakdown with the workload expectations.
Don’t miss
Anything can happen in 2024. Try these 5 easy money hacks to help you make and save thousands of dollars in the new year (they will only take seconds)
Robert Kiyosaki warns 401(k)s and IRAs will be 'toast' after the 'biggest crash in history' — protect yourself now with these shockproof assets
Commercial real estate has topped the stock market for over 25 years — but only the elite had access. Now you can super-spike your wealth even if you're just an everyday investor
The 26-year-old Denverite claimed that the hourly wage is the same for someone who earns $200,000 a year versus $100,000 a year. That’s because people who make $200,000 tend to put in 16-hour days due to demanding job expectations, whereas those making $100,000 tend to put in the standard eight hours, sans overtime.
Moneywise did the calculations on this — and Judge is correct. An employee will earn $52 per hour, whether they work eight hours at $100,000 a year or 16 hours at $200,000 a year.
“Hustle culture makes you broke,” Judge concluded.
The numbers don’t lie
Judge is aware that many people aren’t making $200,000 — or even $100,000 — a year. However, she also knows that people tend to believe that if they work hard and put in overtime hours they’ll get a promotion and a higher salary.
“That doesn’t work either,” she said. “You are basically just working yourself into a salary that is lessening in value over time.”
Judge explained that most salaries are deflated in value due to the “productivity-pay gap.” She cited the Economic Policy Institute’s (EPI) explanation of this phenomenon: it’s the difference between the growth of the economy (“productivity”) and workers’ wages (“pay”).
EPI discovered that there is indeed a massive productivity-pay gap in the U.S.: hourly pay has increased by 14.8% from 1979 to 2022, whereas productivity has increased by a whopping 64.7% — more than four times as much as hourly pay.
Therefore, Judge is right in that your salary has lessened in value over time in correlation to the country’s economic growth. Just like inflation’s effect on cash, your salary is no longer worth what it once was in 1979.
Read more: Thanks to Jeff Bezos, you can now cash in on prime real estate — without the headache of being a landlord. Here's how
Get a ‘lazy girl job'
So, what’s the point of working hard and putting in those overtime hours if your salary hasn’t kept up with productivity?
According to Judge, there is no point. But she referred to a term to game the system: the ‘lazy girl job’.
In 2022, Judge posted a viral TikTok that explained the concept.
A ‘lazy girl job’ is essentially a remote or hybrid position that has a high salary, yet requires no technical skills and doesn’t have high performance expectations. It’s a straight-forward role without demanding requirements that can be completed in less than eight hours a day. Jobs such as “customer success manager” or “marketing associate” would fall under this category.
Moneywise did the calculations to see if a ‘lazy girl job’ really does net you more money per hour by doing the math on a customer success manager’s annual and hourly wages.
Here’s what we found: according to the job site Indeed, a customer success manager earns an average base salary of $76,408. Some of the position’s tasks include onboarding new customers, following up on renewals and encouraging upsells of the company’s product and services.
If this is truly a ‘lazy girl job’ (and it sounds like it is) then you’re probably only working roughly four hours a day, not eight.
In that case, you’re making $79 per hour — a full $27 more than the hourly wage of somebody working 16 hours a day.
Someone with a ‘lazy girl job’ may make 60% less per year than someone making $200,000; however, they’re making 34% more per hour. So who’s really winning here?
Judge is right. The ‘lazy girl job’ is one of the best ways to get back at the productivity-pay gap and make your job earn more for you.
What to read next
A Pennsylvania trio bought a $100K abandoned school and turned it into a 31-unit apartment — but here's a much simpler way to earn real estate riches without a mountain of red tape
Car insurance rates have spiked in the US to a stunning $2,150/year — but you can be smarter than that. Here’s how you can save yourself as much as $820 annually in minutes (it's 100% free)
Even your credit card interest is accumulating interest as you read this — stop this 'bad compounding' today by paying off your card fast and saving thousands in interest. Here's how
This article provides information only and should not be construed as advice. It is provided without warranty of any kind.