Financial Feminist - 165. Am I Being Underpaid? with Hannah Williams (Salary Transparent Street)

Episode Date: June 25, 2024

Have you ever wondered if you’re being paid what you're truly worth? Well today’s guest is trying to help you uncover just that by removing the secrecy and stigma around sharing salaries. Hannah W...illiams is the creator of Salary Transparent Street. You might have seen her videos where she asks strangers about their salaries, and in this episode, we're talking all about her work to close wage gaps and make sure everyone is paid fairly. We'll hear Hannah's story of going from being underpaid to becoming a successful content creator. We'll cover salary transparency, laws aimed at ensuring fair pay, and practical tips for negotiating better salaries. We'll also talk about the challenges of being in the public eye, the importance of emergency funds, and dealing with online criticism. This episode is full of inspiring stories and helpful advice for anyone who cares about financial empowerment. Tune in and learn how you can advocate for your worth in the job market. Read transcripts, learn more about our guests and sponsors, and get more resources at https://herfirst100k.com/financial-feminist-show-notes/165-am-i-being-underpaid-with-hannah-williams-salary-transparent-street/.  Find Hannah on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/salarytransparentstreet/ Add your salary anonymously to the Salary Transparent Street database: https://www.salarytransparentstreet.com/ Not sure where to start on your financial journey? Take our FREE money personality quiz! https://herfirst100k.com/quiz. Special thanks to our sponsors: Thrive Causemetics Get an exclusive 10% off your first order at thrivecausemetics.com/FFPOD Masterclass Get an extra 15% off any annual membership at masterclass.com/FFPOD Squarespace Go to www.squarespace.com/FFPOD to save 10% off your first website or domain purchase. Hill House Visit hillhousehome.com and use the discount code TORI at check out for 15% off. Bossbabe Subscribe to The Bossbabe Podcast on Apple, Spotify, or your favorite podcast platform to level up your business this year. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Transcript
Discussion (0)
Starting point is 00:00:00 There's a reason that especially women of color miss out on millions of dollars over their lifetime and it's because of things like this where that $10,000 maybe it doesn't sound like a lot right now but over your lifetime it adds up and $10,000 is money that should be in your pocket. Probably a little less after taxes but shoot $2,000 I don't know anybody that couldn't make something good happen with $2,000. I don't know anybody that couldn't make something good happen with $2,000, whether it's paying down debt, building your emergency fund, paying off credit cards. It goes a long way.
Starting point is 00:00:34 Hi, Financial Feminists. Welcome to the show. Every time we do one of these, I don't know how to start it, but this is how we're starting it today. You know the drill. You can subscribe. You can go back to our over 150 episode back catalog and listen to more. You can also buy my book Financial Feminist if you want step by step guidance around how to be good with money. And if you don't want to do any of those things, keep listening. Hi. Happy to have you back.
Starting point is 00:00:57 Okay. Today's episode is a really fun one with a friend of mine who's another fellow finance content creator, Hannah Williams, and you have seen her videos. If you follow us, you have seen her videos undoubtedly. Hannah Williams is a 27-year-old content creator and former senior data analyst in the Washington, D.C. metro area tackling a major issue, salary transparency. With her viral series, Salary Transparent Straight, Hannah encourages strangers to share what they do and how much they make.
Starting point is 00:01:23 She is inspired to combat discriminatory tendencies and employment and close pay gaps that affect women, people of color, workers with disabilities and the LGBTQ plus community. Hannah uses her platform to educate her community on market research, salary negotiation, laws to understand workers' rights and finance 101. With this knowledge, she hopes to help workers
Starting point is 00:01:42 grow professionally and build wealth. We talked about salary transparency, duh, how to be more transparent within your own community and your workplace, and how to advocate for more salary transparency at a federal level. We discussed Hannah's journey into building salary transparency and what she's learned by going viral interviewing hundreds of people about their salaries. We also discussed advocating for yourself when it comes to what you earn and how to learn more about what other people in your field are actually getting paid.
Starting point is 00:02:07 So without further ado, let's go ahead and get into it. But first a word from our sponsors. This episode of Financial Feminist is sponsored by Thrive Cosmetics, Squarespace and Masterclass. Refresh your everyday look with foolproof vegan products made with clean, skin-loving ingredients. Get an exclusive 10% off your first order at thrivecosmetics.com slash ffpod. Build a beautiful website to get your message out into the world with Squarespace. Go to squarespace.com slash ffpod to save 10% off your first purchase of a website or domain. Masterclass is the only streaming platform where you can learn and grow with over 200 of the world's best. Get an extra 15% off any annual membership at masterclass.com slash FF pod.
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Starting point is 00:03:42 You're still DC outside, right? Yeah. Cool. Alexandria. Where is right? Yeah. Alexandria. Cool. Where is that? That's Virginia. Yes? Yeah. So actually, Arlington and Alexandria were part of DC.
Starting point is 00:03:54 It used to be a square, and then right where the river cuts off is where they just cut it off. So it's kind of frustrating because, yeah, I'm in Virginia, but technically a lot of us consider that we live in DC. But if you say you live in DC, you get called out for it. So we say DMV. Can you like not go to DC anymore with your microphone? Have you like tapped out that city?
Starting point is 00:04:16 Like you're like, I can't go in. I've done enough DC interviews. I can't go back. You know, it's two sided because yes and no part of me. Yes, because I get recognized. So it makes it so easy, right? Like I don't even have to tell them like what I'm doing interviews for. They either tell me yes or no from across the street.
Starting point is 00:04:34 Um, but then the other side of it is like, I'm so tired of interviewing contractors and like government, you know, they all kind of do the same job. So it's sort of boring after a while, I want like a little bit more diversity. Totally. Well, that's why I love seeing you pop up in different cities. And you've done a couple in Seattle, you pop up and I'm like, Oh, cool. Okay, I get to know what everybody else is making.
Starting point is 00:04:56 I need to come back out to the West Coast. I know. We love having money experts who come on the show answer a question, which is what is their first money memory? What is the first time you remember thinking about money? The first thing that popped into my head right away was a Nintendo DS. Like when I was probably like nine or 10 years old, that was the hot, you know, electronic to get
Starting point is 00:05:21 followed by the Wii. But I remember like wanting it so bad and all the kids in my class had one. And I mean, I didn't come from a not well off family. I was upper middle class, but my parents are penny pinchers. You know, they are you have to talk them into it. It has to be on sale. You know, if it's 300 bucks, like what is this bringing to your life? Like, and my parents were so against technology, like making me a zombie. So I remember wanting it really bad. And my parents telling me that like it was too expensive. And that was the number one thing was expensive. And I think I spent the next year, like on eBay, and looking for any like sale or like item of this that was on sale and trying not to get scammed on the
Starting point is 00:06:06 internet. And eventually my parents got it for me a year later for Christmas. But yeah, I learned pretty quickly like budgeting and value of money from my parents perspective. I love even the conversation of like, what is this bringing to your life? Like how many parents are sitting down and being like, all right, before we purchase this for you, we need to dive into the philosophical, what is this actually going to do for you at a higher level? Oh yeah, my parents were so strict. Like if it didn't have an educational component. And I remember when they got it for me, I had to like save up allowance to get the games that I wanted, which was like Animal Crossing and like Mario Kart, but they got me like Sudoku and like the brain game thing. So they were like, here
Starting point is 00:06:50 are the games we'll get you. And I had to find other ways to get the ones I wanted. Yeah, it was really interesting growing up in my house where my parents were strict, a different version of it though, where I actually didn't get an allowance. They were like, you are a contributing member to this family. I don't get paid for housework. So you're not getting paid either. And so there's like pros and cons I see to all of that of like, I think allowance helps you manage money, it helps you earn money, all of that. And then there's the flip side of it too. So yeah, it's just always
Starting point is 00:07:17 interesting to ask that question and figure out, yeah, what what did you learn about money growing up? What did you maybe not learn about money growing up? And then how do all of those things affect how you manage money now? Huge. I mean, I think that the relationships that we have with money are so influenced by the relationships with our family members and what they've taught us about money. It's all rooted in that experience and it carries over. So it is so important. I personally know a bit about your story, but I would love to hear and I'm sure listeners would love to hear where your idea for salary transparent street came from. You found out
Starting point is 00:07:51 you were being underpaid, right? So tell me more about that. Yeah, I'll try to explain it where it's not long winded because there's so many like curves and twists to the story. But essentially, I found out that I was underpaid. I used to be a senior data analyst supporting government contracts in Washington, DC. In 2021, I had been two years out of college, graduated in 2019, so pretty young in my career, still somewhat like entry level, mid-level, and I had gotten promoted to a senior data analyst role at another company, mid-level and I had gotten promoted to a senior data analyst role at another company, making $90,000 a year, found out that, and for anyone who hears that and sees sticker shock, you
Starting point is 00:08:30 know, wow, that's a lot of money. Like what are you complaining about? This is in Washington, DC, which has, you know, arguably competitive cost of living to New York and Los Angeles. So it doesn't go as far. But you know, I was very grateful for it. And the key here is that I was fresh out of school, I did not know how to negotiate my salary or how to do market research.
Starting point is 00:08:52 So when I saw that, you know, and it was more money than I'd ever seen in my life, I accepted it without any hesitation. I said, Yes, sign me up. I want to do this. Soon after found out that I was actually underpaid about $25,000 compared to people doing the exact same job at different companies. And when I asked for a raise at my company and I was a great employee, the contractor, the client loved me, brought so much to the contract.
Starting point is 00:09:16 So it's not like I was asking without just cause. They told me that I had just started. So I had to be there at least a year before I even qualified for a raise. And even then, they didn't give out raises of more than 3% to 5% at any one time. So I either had to sit in my spot and be patient and constantly chase my market rate because I would never catch up to it essentially, or I could go look for another job. And so that's what I started doing. And in my first interview with a recruiter, I give her so much credit,
Starting point is 00:09:45 because she was really the inspiration here. She asked me what my salary requirements were. Standard question and then the interview, I'd gotten so used to it. But in that moment, I decided to take a risk and ask her what the budget was. I had done my market research at that point. I learned what to do.
Starting point is 00:10:03 And I knew that my rate was between 100 and $120,000. I had been prepared to ask for 105. I was like, okay, if I'm making 15k more than I'm making now, I think that's good. I feel like looking back now, I still should have asked for more. But what's important here is when I asked her what the budget was, she told me it was 115. No hesitation. I told her that was great, that was right in line with my expectations, which it was, but that was $10,000 more than I'd planned to ask. And in that moment, you know, this culmination of events, I realized, hey, transparency had undercut me $25,000. Then it had also had the potential to undercut me by another $10,000. Like these, and I'm a white woman. I have so
Starting point is 00:10:46 much more privilege than a lot of different groups of workers. And so I accepted that job offer shortly after, started my job, but I just couldn't shape the experience. I was like, wow, I figured this out. But the system is unchanged. People are still going through this every single day. And there's a reason that the pay gap exists is a reason of pay secrecy. So I decided I'm going to create a TikTok. I'm going to start talking about, you know, the money I made. And when I did that, it resonated with people. It started performing really well. I've never been a creator. I've never dreamed of being one. But talking to people online and finding that community and sharing my message was so meaningful to me. It brought me a lot of value. So I kept going. People
Starting point is 00:11:30 really liked the topic of transparency. So I was like, how do I take this a step further? Like we need companies to make the change. But you know, I don't have the power to call up Elon Musk and tell him like, hey, you know, you might lose money. Like it's expensive to pay people well, but like it's the right thing to do. I knew though that there's power in people and especially social movements on social media. I graduated basically right into the great resignation and I saw how people can have an impact in greater movements. And so I was like, hmm, simple concept. Let me just go on the streets in Washington, DC and ask people, what do you do and how much do you make? And maybe some people sharing will reach,
Starting point is 00:12:09 someone in Idaho who is unsure if they're well compensated or not. I brought my husband out with me and we went out, posted the video, same day we filmed it on April 16th, 2021, which is so cool, because we're about to be two years old now shortly. But yeah, it went viral overnight. Three weeks later, quit my job. My husband followed me a month later. It's just been like so crazy, the roller coaster and how fast everything
Starting point is 00:12:35 happened. But that is the series of events in a nutshell. I have so many follow ups to that. Did you say three weeks after you posted your first video? Did I hear that right? Three weeks. I really jumped off that cliff didn't I? Were you making money at that point yourself? No. Okay. That was my first question. I was like, if you were already getting brand deals three weeks in, first of all, incredible. But like, yeah, it sounded like, yeah, you took the
Starting point is 00:13:02 leap and was like, okay, I'm going to figure this out. Yeah. And people always ask like, you know, at what point yeah, you took the leap and was like, okay, I'm going to figure this out. Yeah. And people always ask, like, you know, at what point do I quit my job to pursue this full time? What was the reason for you? And like I said, I wasn't making money. I didn't sign my first brand deal until September and we started in April, I quit in May. So several months of not having a contract, so not even guaranteed pay. And I didn't get paid until probably like October. So the real reason that I decided to take the risk, first of all, I had savings, my husband and I, you know, had that little nest egg, we knew that we could go about
Starting point is 00:13:36 six months with everything that we had, you know, to pay the mortgage. And that's what we had. But when we posted that video, and it went mega viral overnight, I had been on TikTok for like two or three months with my personal account. And in that amount of time, every day posting every day, three videos a day, super like lots of work into this. I gained 50,000 followers in three months.
Starting point is 00:14:01 When I posted that video on a blank profile, no followers, no videos, overnight I gained 50k. And so I was looking at it and I was like, if I don't find a way to monetize this, I'm an idiot. There's gotta be a way. The exact same thing happened to me. I spent like three years posting every single day on Instagram. And then our fifth TikTok went crazy viral. And I was actually looking at the numbers the other day. I think we did 80 to 120,000 followers in like a few days from that one video.
Starting point is 00:14:33 Crazy. Yeah. So when you've got that momentum, you know, you have a moment to monetize and to really grasp it. And I'm young, you know, I was 26 or 25 at the time, I'm 27 now I'm trying to do the math. But I was, you know, in my early 20s, my husband and I don't have children of our own. We were in that moment in our careers where we were like, you know, let's do it. Like, let's go got a bet on yourself, you got a bet on yourself. And we've always dreamed of working for ourselves. That has always been, you know, whatever we do, that's the goal. And so having that freedom, the opportunity to it was something that we couldn't resist. And thankfully, it worked out. I understand that there's a lot of privilege
Starting point is 00:15:14 that comes with, you know, taking that leap. But I think that having that savings was so critical to giving us the security to be like, okay, we have to make something happen, but also we can continue for six months. And luckily we turned it around. Right. I wanted to call that out of like the power of the emergency fund, right? Or the power of having savings, right? Like we talk about her first 100K all the time that when you have money, you have options. And that's the truth is it's like, okay, I can take six months and see if this thing has legs. And if it doesn't, okay, I can take six months and see if this thing has legs. And if it doesn't, okay, I go back to my job. I go back to the corporate and that's fine.
Starting point is 00:15:48 Or if I hate it or whatever happens, but you don't know unless you try, but money gives you the safety net to be able to try even to have the option to try. And failing is also not the worst thing. Like I said, I was young. When I quit my job, my manager was like, you know, call us if things don't work out. I had a great reputation. You know, I knew that there were opportunities for me outside of this. But also, there were opportunities that I could create for myself by trying. Maybe I wouldn't succeed at that, but I would find something else. And that risk to me
Starting point is 00:16:25 was so worth it. The other thing I want to call out that you said too, which is something that I preach and that is so important. And in that whole story, it was very easy to gloss over something that is so crucial for anybody listening. When somebody calls you up and, you know, trying to talk to you about a new job, when you're on a job interview, when you're talking to a recruiter, and they say something like, what is your desired salary or what are your salary expectations? You almost never want to give a number first because of something like what Hannah was just talking about, where you undercut yourself because you don't understand the full scope
Starting point is 00:17:03 of the role. So if you can ask literally, like, I don't understand the full scope of the role. So if you can ask literally like, I don't understand the full scope of the role at this time in the process, but would love to know your budget nine times out of 10, they are going to tell you their budget. So you don't undercut yourself. Absolutely. Yeah. And I think that's something I probably learned from watching your videos. Honestly, like I was like, let me just ask about the budget. Like, and it worked and you have nothing to lose by asking. If they say, oh, well, you know, we can't share the budget, then okay, you go to plan
Starting point is 00:17:29 B. But you're missing out by not just trying to test the waters and ask. Yeah. And we're seeing a lot, and we'll talk about this a little later too, like a lot of legislation around like posting the salary range in the job description or you know the other common questions like what is your current salary? Fun fact that's illegal and you probably know better than me. I think it was 20 states last time I checked I think it's higher than that now. 22 I think now. Yeah so you know that's the other question that I think trips a lot of people up. You never have to answer a question in a job interview that you don't want to answer, but especially something as bullshit as like, what is your current salary?
Starting point is 00:18:08 Like it doesn't that you don't have to answer that question. But the reason you don't want to answer that question is because if you are currently not being fairly compensated according to your market rate and they ask you how much you're currently making, they're going to use that number that you give them. There's no other reason that they would ask is other than to use that number that you give them. There's no other reason that they would ask other than to use that number to determine what they'll compensate you next. I mean, imagine if you're a mom that took a year off to raise your newborn, you come back to the workforce and they ask you how much are you making? It could be either zero or what you were making a year ago, and that's less than what you should be making now. There's so many reasons that that question is
Starting point is 00:18:44 illegal. So if you're not sure if your state has that law, just double check really quick because if a company asks you, it's a great opportunity to educate them on your state's workers' rights laws and also that you shouldn't answer it. Yep. Couldn't agree more. You gave us so much meat even into your introduction that I want to call out one last point, which is you said, okay, if I would have just said this is my budget and I wouldn't have been able to understand that their budget actually started 10K more than what I was willing to take. Yes, you get the money then, which is huge, right?
Starting point is 00:19:14 You get the increase in salary that makes a real life impact on your day to day, on your ability to save or pay off debt in real time. But let's talk about to your point of like, okay, if I would have taken 105 instead of 115, well, your next job would have been 115 as opposed to something like 130. And you know, the potential to invest that money you would have lost out on that too. So something I always remind people of when they negotiate as it's yes, it's about the money right now, because we want to be compensated and we want more of that money right now. But it's also about like, what are your career earnings for the rest of your life, for the rest of your career?
Starting point is 00:19:52 And also what is the impact of putting that money in even a high yield savings account or something that is, you know, even more fruitful like investing in the stock market? Yeah, I mean, there's a reason that especially women of color miss out on millions of dollars over their lifetime. And it's because of things like this where that $10,000, you know, maybe it doesn't sound like a lot right now, but over your lifetime, it adds up. And $10,000 is money that should be in your pocket, probably a little less after taxes. But shoot, $2,000. I don't know anybody that couldn't, you know, make something good happen with $2,000, whether it's paying down debt, you know, building your emergency
Starting point is 00:20:30 fund, paying off credit cards, it goes a long way. One of the things I've always wondered, and I think people can wonder watching your videos, how scary and weird is it going up to somebody on the street? First of all, just that that's scary enough of like, Hi, can I interview you for this thing? And then asking them the most taboo topic of all time, right? We'll talk about sex, death, politics, religion before we'll talk about money. So what is that process like actually like going up and asking somebody what happens when they say no, what happens when they say yes, I would just love
Starting point is 00:21:05 to know more. It's interesting and I think that it's helped me with my people skills because I used to like hate awkward moments and like awkward pauses and now I embrace it. So it's really taught me a lot about like social interaction. But you know, one thing I think people wouldn't guess about me is that I'm kind of introverted and shy. So making the decision to go out and interview strangers on the street was very difficult for me to wrap my head around.
Starting point is 00:21:32 But I think ultimately I was just so motivated by I knew that it would have such an impact on people just because of how it has impacted me and what I'd heard on the internet. So the drive there was what kept me going to do it and conquer my fear. It's incredibly awkward, though. I've gotten so many different responses and reactions to it. I've got people who give me double takes, you know, I've heard, what do you want next? My social security number, I've heard like, why are you doing this? Like, why do you need to know? What are you selling? And I think that when I started the page, I knew that there was going to be a level
Starting point is 00:22:11 of skepticism and concern and rightfully so. You know, if a stranger asks you how much you're making, you better understand why before you answer. And so I think I had that understanding before we started. And because of that, I put a lot of energy towards our branding and making sure that people took us seriously. So if you go back to our first video,
Starting point is 00:22:32 I actually had had the idea for Salary Transparency a month before we did it. But I was waiting on, A, getting a logo done, and B, getting the t-shirt with the logo done before going out to do it because I knew that having that on my shirt and saying I have an account, I have a name, I have a t-shirt with the logo would give me this, you know, professionalism and people would take me seriously.
Starting point is 00:22:56 I still have people tell me they think I'm a college student doing this for a project and they pity me, but I will take the pity. Like, I'm OK with that. I'm totally fine as long as, you know, they embrace the reason for what we're doing and, you know, hopefully contribute as well. But I also think it's a real testament to Gen Z and millennials and their embrace of the paid transparency movement. It's a full 360 from our parents, Gen X and boomers.
Starting point is 00:23:27 And I see that in the amount of people who say yes and no. The demographic split is always women and workers of color are more likely to share than white men, statistically. But in recent months, I've actually seen that changing. And I think that that's a testament also to pay transparency laws and the movement becoming more normalized that white men are now seeing, oh, like, I actually make the most, let me help everyone else out, you know, and pull them up and take them to the penthouse with me. And those are allies that, you know, I give so much credit to the reason that
Starting point is 00:24:04 my page is successful and what I do is much credit to the reason that my page is successful and what I do is successful because I wouldn't have a page without them. So I'm really just grateful to everyone that wants to share. But I unfortunately have found that the majority of people that embrace the movement have been victims of secrecy themselves. So we're all kind of traumatized together and trying to move forward. Well, Hannah, what a testament to your work though, because I have a feeling the data is not entirely trackable, but I wouldn't be surprised if, you know, the move, you know,
Starting point is 00:24:34 the pay transparency is more likely and things are shifting because of the work that you're doing, right? And it's like it's normalizing conversations that again, feel weird. And actually, you literally answered the follow up question we had, feel weird. And actually you've literally answered the follow-up question we had, which is like, do you feel like some people are more likely to share versus some people are less likely to share? So it sounds like there is a gender racial
Starting point is 00:24:54 as well as age divide. Is that probably accurate? Absolutely. Yeah. Yeah. And you know, it's so easy to see, you know, it depends on who you approach. If they are, you know, seem a little older, that's where the skepticism comes out. And they have questions when they're
Starting point is 00:25:11 younger, they kind of are like, Sure, you know, like, I totally support this, me and my colleagues, like helped each other get a paper pay raise by talking about pay, they almost always have a story. And that's why they support it. But gosh, like, it is kind of frustrating, because I do think that our page has had an impact on the movement as a whole. But like you said, you know, how do you track the data there? We have a billion views on our videos. So that is probably my strongest data point that a billion people saw this and thought it was a
Starting point is 00:25:41 great thing. But you know, my I'm just glad that we have helped spur this movement along. I think it's probably my greatest accomplishment and might be my greatest today and ever because we're really helping people make more money and that is helping them get out of debt. It's helping them, you know, buy a home, buy a car for their kid, go to college, pursue opportunities that they didn't see for themselves before. And gosh, that is, I could do that for free. This episode is brought to you by the Boss Babe podcast, a show for entrepreneurs looking to start, grow, or scale a freedom-based business. Hosted by my friend and colleague, Natalie Ellis, founder and CEO of Boss Babe,
Starting point is 00:26:26 who has spent the last decade building businesses and perfecting the exact roadmap to build a thriving, profitable business that creates true freedom of time and money. Every week, Natalie dives into the things every entrepreneur needs to know to be successful. From strategies to grow an audience on social media and build a sales engine in your business
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Starting point is 00:27:45 analytic features make it easy to figure out where people are coming from. Their shop feature is great because you can sell your additional downloads or your workshops or your courses. Their flexible payment option makes checkout seamless. You can do credit cards, PayPal, Apple Pay, anything to make sure that your consumers and your customers can find you and check out seamlessly. Whether you're just starting out or you're managing a growing brand, Squarespace makes it easy to create a beautiful website, engage with your audience and sell anything from products to content to time all in one place, all in your
Starting point is 00:28:14 terms without having to know anything about how to code. Go to Squarespace.com for a free trial and when you're ready to launch, go to Squarespace.com slash FF Pod to save 10% off your first purchase of a website or domain. Have you ever had somebody in real time realize that they are being under compensated? Yes. And you know what's so frustrating about that? That the time that that happened, I don't have the clip because we used to be using this old microphone that was like really cheap and janky. And we were on a bridge. And I
Starting point is 00:28:51 think that there was some interference with like the mic and the bridge and all the audio cut out of that video. But in that interview, I approached three young Asian students from, young Asian men from Austin, Texas, in Austin, Texas. They were all engineers, had just graduated, all had just gotten jobs, you know, so they are on level playing field. They have the same degree, same years of experience, same college. In real time, they talk about how much they're making. And one found out he was making significantly less than the others. And in real time, he's like, wait, why am I making less like and they had a conversation. It was it was beautiful to watch because they were, you know, like figuring out like, well, I'm at
Starting point is 00:29:37 this company and you know, they do this and so like the industry, and they had the conversation, but he realized like he had actually accepted less than his buddies and they walked away being like, thank you. Like you know, grateful, but also like, oh, you know, now I have to figure it out. But you know, at least now you know, and that's why transparency is important. Right? So it sounds like they hadn't talked about it with each other before. Like there was no conversation, even though they were even close friends. They hadn't talked about, hey dude, what are you making?
Starting point is 00:30:11 What are you making? Not at all. It was, I guess, the first time that they had probably even talked about pay, let alone with themselves or with each other, with the group. It was so refreshing to be a part of it. But man, I'm hoping he's making more now. But what a cool gift to be able to be like, yeah, maybe I should talk about money more with the people around me, especially you very rarely get that same data, like same sounds like same age, same race, same education. Yeah, same job like, because that's, you know, anybody on my Instagram is like the bank app, is it real, blah, blah, blah, because like, I don't like, no, that's, you know, anybody on my Instagram is like, the pay gap isn't real,
Starting point is 00:30:45 blah, blah, blah, because like, I don't like no, that's the perfect example of like, okay, across the board, some people are still underpaid compared to others. Yes. And gosh, the whole the comments section. Oh, I don't even want to talk about it unless you really feel passionate. No, I don't. Because I don't want to give them any energy or my time. And anybody listening to this podcast knows that the pay gap is real. There's no reason we need to educate them on, on why that is. So, yeah.
Starting point is 00:31:12 Yes. Are there any industries or jobs that tend to get, well, actually speaking, which we actually have a do, we have a comment or a question about this. Do you, but from the comment section or from your audience, let's say, is there any industries or jobs that tend to get more like love or hate than others? And then why do you think that is? My gosh, so many I'm trying to think which ones to spotlight the most.
Starting point is 00:31:37 So the jobs that I see that are the least well paid, and I think that'll help guide me, you know, they make the least and they're also the ones that should be making more. Our teachers, social workers, social services, those are the ones that I always hear on average making under 50K with multiple years of experience. The comment section supports that often, that teachers are undercompensated. But then there's always the argument of people who are like, well, you only work nine months a year. And you just babysit. It's not like a real job.
Starting point is 00:32:12 And there's just, I think that what it comes down to is a lot of times when there's arguments in the comment section about whether or not a career is well compensated, a lot of times it comes down to whether or not they value the work of women. Because a lot of these jobs that are is well compensated. A lot of times it comes down to whether or not they value the work of women because a lot of these jobs that are not well compensated that deserve these pay raises are usually predominantly dominated by women, the majority.
Starting point is 00:32:35 And the sad part is, is the pay gap needs to close by desegregating all industries and jobs. We need to stop holding a majority in nursing and teaching and in these social services jobs because the idea that women are more nurturing and caring is a stereotype. It is not something that we are born with. And so the idea that it makes sense that more women
Starting point is 00:32:58 are nurses than men is not actually rooted in any fact. It is just based on what we push women towards and then we pay them less for it because they're women. I think that once we get more men into female-dominated career fields, we'll stop having this problem of these careers being lesser compensated. But other arguments about, you know, the value of work is a whole conversation. Like, you could, you talk about this for hours. It's very disheartening and sometimes I feel like the comment section what I've seen is really put a damper on the work that we do and you know the value of sharing because when you share your salary on the internet. People in the comments section feel very entitled to share whether or not they feel you deserve it and And it's frustrating when you have a teacher making 70K
Starting point is 00:33:46 and people telling them you are overcompensated because I'm an electrical engineer and I make 20K more than you and that's not right and I do more than you. And at the end of the day, we really need to separate the amount of money we make and our value. And I think that's why the comment section gets riled up is because we root so much of our self-worth and our value and how much we make and our value. And I think that's why the comment section gets riled up is because we root so much of our self-worth and our value
Starting point is 00:34:08 in how much we make. And whether or not we feel like we make enough determines whether or not we value ourselves and our own work. And at the end of the day, like all of us are under-compensated. None of us are making what we should when you have the 1% making billions
Starting point is 00:34:24 and most of us are making on average about 52K, which is not enough in most areas of this country. I'll step off my stool here, but like, gosh, I could go on forever about this. No, soapboxes is what we do professionally here at her first 100K in financial finance, so don't worry. Soapbox, thank you. Yeah, no, the other thing too that I think is so important, what you just said is, you know, to take the example of like the teacher versus the electrical engineer, it's like, I think that people definitely
Starting point is 00:34:54 compare salaries because it feels like such an identity or such a, you know, this is personal to me. But it's also, we see it as an us versus them, or we see it's not a, how do we collectively make more money? And how do we start charging billionaires the taxes they should be paying? But rather, just because we're all tired and overworked, and there's so much, you know, again, stigma around money in general, but also we take it so personally. And because we're so mad at the system that exists, it's just very easy to take it out on another individual, even an individual making, you know, slightly more money
Starting point is 00:35:31 than you. Like, I've been very open about how much money I have and, you know, there's shit I get all of the time on the internet of like, you have so much money. And I'm like, yes, I do. I have a lot more money than the average person. There's a ton of privilege in that, but like there was a very big difference between even a millionaire and a billionaire with a B. Like that's a huge gap. And then there's also, of course, a gap between, on average, $52,000 and then everything above that. So I do feel like there is this like us versus them thing
Starting point is 00:36:01 that starts to happen. That's just what the internet's good at in general. It's just like dunking on people. But I think that that is probably too where the hate comes from. Because you know, I've gotten it personally over and over and over again, I see other creators in our field get it. I see people who are, you know, have the audacity to be transparent, where it's just like, you're mad at the system and you're taking out that anger on a corrupt, unjust system on an individual. And it's like, that's not the point of this.
Starting point is 00:36:30 Right. And I mean, gosh, a great example of that is nurses. Right. I recently did a roundtable interview with travel nurses. Well, not all of them, but there were two travel nurses on the panel and others that were RNs. And they were making like 100,000 each, but the travel nurses were more around like 180, 200K
Starting point is 00:36:51 in Los Angeles, like in San Francisco, high cost of living areas. And the comments were, it was so disappointing because we were so excited about the episode and releasing it and hoping that nurses would see it as inspiration. And the comments just like destroyed it. You know, they were saying this isn't realistic, like they're overcompensated.
Starting point is 00:37:11 This is why our medical bills are so high. And it's it's frustrating because it's like we all need to realize that our battle is not with the 99% of which most of us are all in on. I make 200k and I'm still part of the middle class in my area. I don't make jack shit. I forgot that I could swear, so I was like, what's my other word? But yeah, it's so important to understand your cost of living and how far your money goes and how that affects other people's salaries and that you can't compare yourself if you are a potato farmer in Idaho making eggs to a registered nurse or a travel
Starting point is 00:37:51 nurse in San Francisco making eggs. You know it's not comparable and we need to also understand that our fight is not with one another it is with our employers and the ones who set our rates. Don't be mad at the person making X. Be excited and eager to learn what negotiating strategy worked for them. What did they ask for? You know, what kind of skills or experience that they have that I should get so that I can ask for the same. That's what I hope our videos instigate, but sometimes it does go the wrong way. I just think that any time you try to talk about anything that is, yeah, just emotionally charged, it's just so... And again, the internet loves this. This is what these platforms want, is they want discord. They want the back and forth. And so, yeah, I think it's just always really hard to have these conversations and you hope that people show up in a way that's like supportive of other people and supportive of, you know, transparency. And I think just a lot of people haven't gotten there yet. It's it's uncomfortable to talk about for many people. And again, like you said before, it's, it feels like a personal defect if you're not making as much as you think you should be making compared to somebody else.
Starting point is 00:39:01 to somebody else. Right. And I also want people to remember that how we react to people being transparent on the internet will also determine how the transparency movement moves ahead. If it starts getting really negative and people are scared to share how much they make because of the fear of being unfairly vilified,
Starting point is 00:39:19 you can't blame them for not wanting to be transparent. And unfortunately, that backfires on all of us. It doesn't backfire on the companies who we should be holding accountable. What the pay transparency movement delivers on is us all working together to share and learn from one another and have these conversations with people in similar fields so that we can get ahead
Starting point is 00:39:42 in our respective fields. But if we, you know, see someone making more and start pointing the finger in our mean, I, you know, I'm not seeing it as people, I won't have people to interview, the pay transparency movement won't move ahead period. Right. Right. I've talked about it on the show before, but there's a reason I'm not as transparent about my money as I used to be. And it's because both of like a threat to my safety, which is a real thing, but also just the stigma around women earning money.
Starting point is 00:40:09 We don't as a society, we don't like women with money. Yeah, like we don't like women pursuing money. We don't, we don't feel comfortable with that. But men are worshiped to have money. So yeah, I've experienced that as someone who is trying to perpetuate transparency and talking about money, I have to now put safeguards up and put boundaries up that even I don't want to do, but because of the system and the society that exists. Yeah. Yeah.
Starting point is 00:40:35 It's really like the boy boss, right? Like if a guy, young guy goes on the internet and he says, I made $500,000 drop shipping, oh my God, they are like minions at a concert. It's like, Oh my God, I love you. Tell me how you did it. But if I say I made a million dollars and I made 200k, they're like, you're lying. I need to see your tax return because that doesn't make sense. Right. It's daddy's money. It's your husband's money. 100%. Why aren't you donating more? Which is my, my favorite one. You should just
Starting point is 00:41:05 be doing this for free because you love it. Right. Right. And I also do want to say though, like, you know, sharing your salary, obviously is a wonderful thing. But there are valid reasons to not want to share it. And I've, you know, ran into people on the street who will tell me I fully support pay transparency, like I will, I will tell anybody directly, you know, in my in my group of like my friend group or network, how much I make, but I don't want to go on the internet with it. And you know, there's privacy reasons for that. But there's also that people might be negotiating. And that's why pay secrecy laws exist. You know, you don't want the recruiter to know how much you're making and then use that against you. So you know, I'm not vilifying anyone that doesn't want to share, but I do want to stress that we need to encourage people to share. And
Starting point is 00:41:48 if you're able to even anonymously, it goes so far, like I call it paying it forward, literally and figuratively. And I think it's something we all should do. Are there any standout interviews or people you've spoken to and like what makes them memorable? Oh, great question. You know, it's so interesting. I can see an image of a person, and I always remember what they do. I just have it ingrained in my memory. And some of my favorite interviews
Starting point is 00:42:13 were probably with small business owners, entrepreneurs, because they just have such great stories. And they just have so much to share, so many lessons learned. I am so tired of people telling me, like, you know, pursue your dreams and, you know, take the risk. But sometimes when they say it, like, you actually feel like it's valid. I interviewed a hot dog stand owner in Indiana,
Starting point is 00:42:36 and he was posted up right outside their Capitol building. So in downtown Indiana, so if you ever go, you know, hopefully you can swing by and he'll still be there. But he was previously incarcerated, you know, had gotten out of jail. And while he was in jail, he had come up with the plan, you know, to turn his life around and start his hot dog stand. And he'd been doing it for I think, like two years then and was making good money. And gosh, he was just like the nicest guy, you know, we haven't even planned on asking him because he was working. He was you know, there were people trying to order hot dogs while we
Starting point is 00:43:08 were doing the interview. And I didn't want to, you know, stop his business. He's an entrepreneur. And he was like, I'll do the interview like while I'm doing this, like if you can work around me. And I was like, sure thing. Like, let's do this quick. Like let's in and out, you know, get you back to your customers. But he was so like willing to share about his story. And I think those people, especially in communities, you know, are so impactful to the youth, you know, and sharing that there's other opportunities than what most of us learn in school, which is pretty standard, you know, finance, tech, like, I feel like people
Starting point is 00:43:42 don't know about a lot of different career opportunities, like the hot dog stand, and, you know, making a good living if you think that, you know, making 50k as an assistant is okay. You can also make 50k as a hot dog stand owner. There's so many things you can do differently than make the same amount. Other people that I've interviewed that I really like look back on I interviewed I forget her exact title, but it was an optical therapist she worked in assisting the blind and especially students blind students in schools with you
Starting point is 00:44:15 know navigating their their environments and teaching them about you know the tools and resources that they can use and I guess that this is something that a lot of students need, but they don't have access to or adults need. And so she was she was blind, you know, and had joined the program. And so that story was just so inspiring and really sweet. And for her to reach out and want to willingly talk about it was really meaningful. I also interviewed a water vendor outside the White House who was making like four thousand dollars, I
Starting point is 00:44:45 think a month or a week. And I believe it because he was selling his water bottles for like a dollar a bottle. And in the interview, he sold like six, like while we were talking, like because if you've ever been if you've ever been to DC in the summer, it gets freaking hot and humid, like 100% humidity, not enough water to cool you down. And these families, you know, if you've got a family of four, they're buying eight waters, that's eight bucks right there in 10 seconds. So the people that say cap, you know, he's lying. No, he's not. And you know, we should applaud him for seeing this as a great venture. He also had a team, you know, on every single block. So it's something
Starting point is 00:45:24 that I think it's really remarkable when you see people work with their community and build their team to all, you know, bring back a bag and bring other people with them instead of, you know, just keeping it all to themselves. That hustles real man. That's great. That's so smart. Yeah, seriously. But yeah, like just being scrappy. There's so many things that you can do. Like my job right now is made up I have a made-up job
Starting point is 00:45:46 I created my job where I asked strangers on the street what they do for a living and how much they make and I make 200k doing it like there's other things that you can do that sound just as crazy just as silly But if you see an opportunity out there or a way to fix something There's almost always a way that you can turn a business out of it. But it really like having an impact and having meaning in your work, it just makes it so much more enjoyable and fun and life more meaningful as well. So as you might know, I am going to a wedding in Italy this summer. It is in the El Moffi coast. It is going to be hot. It is going to be like 90 degrees. I have to wear pastels.
Starting point is 00:46:31 I don't own pastels and I'm curvy girl. So a little hard to fit. So when Hill House reached out to us about sponsoring the podcast, I was like, yes, yes, yes, yes, because Hill House Home invented the viral nap dress and you're thinking nap dress, but the nap dress for the wedding? Oh, it's like flattering and it's comfortable and they've got like their signature little smocking fit. It's so great. So whether you have weddings or a vacation or you just need something comfortable to survive the heat in, Hill House Home makes fun fashion that makes you feel good.
Starting point is 00:47:04 The other cool thing is that they have this like one signature dress with some other styles too, but in every single color or pattern you could possibly want. So whether I'm vibing with my normal like black vibes or I'm going pastel for the wedding, they've got me covered. You can use discount code Tory for 15% off your first purchase at HillHouseHome.com. That's the sound of fried chicken with a spicy history. Thornton Prince was a ladies man. To get revenge, his girlfriend hid spices in his fried chicken. He loved it so much, he opened Prince's Hot Chicken. This is one of many sounds in Tennessee with a story to tell.
Starting point is 00:47:47 To hear them in person, plan your trip at tnvacation.com. Tennessee sounds perfect. Speaking of 200K, you're paying yourself less than when you started and you've had all this growth. I would love to know why you made that decision and then some of the financial safeguards you're putting into place that help your business and help you as well. Absolutely. So I'm actually I'm back up.
Starting point is 00:48:18 So I did bring my salary down. So I was making 200k like mid last year, and then I brought it down to 125k for the end of the year, because I wanted to make room in the business like we haven't, you know, solidified our revenue yet. And when you work in content creation, you'll learn very quickly that when you sign a contract does not mean when you get paid it usually get paid like 90 days after if you know that's upon contract signature. Sometimes it's 60 days after the video is posted. So it's tough to predict your revenue, especially when you spend months navigating and negotiating
Starting point is 00:48:55 brand deals and sometimes they fall through. So I brought my salary down from 200k to 125k so that we had you know a little bit more flexibility that we weren't really tight. And I mean, I was making 200K before, bringing me back down to 125K. When I quit my job, I was making 115. So I didn't see it as like a negative. It's not like I had immediately gone out
Starting point is 00:49:18 and bought a nice car. I didn't change my budget or my means of living when I quit my job. And I think that's very intelligent. And I'm glad I did, didn't, actually I'm glad I didn't change my, how I live because, you know, when I went back down to 125K, I had nothing to worry about, nothing, you know,
Starting point is 00:49:37 where I was scrambling or needed to get into my savings. Now we're in a really great place. We have brought on like new team members that are part-time. We've really navigated a lot of brand partnerships that are more long-term. So I'm back up to 200K. I honestly hot take think I'm underpaid because my business makes over a million dollars last year,
Starting point is 00:49:59 made over a million. We're on track this year to make the same amount. So it's probably gonna be more at the end of the year, at least I'm hoping. But you know, it's all about making a long-term investment in the business. I work like 60 hours a week completely willingly with love but it's a lot of work and anyone that would do my job at a standard corporate you know private organization would probably be making like 500k. I know that that is in my future and I'm okay with waiting because life is good and I can't complain.
Starting point is 00:50:31 There's also something to be said that I wish more people would talk about and I don't want to spend too much time talking about it because we've touched on it a little bit, but like the emotional toll that a comment section can have, like, I don't think we can put a price on it, but I think we can put a price on it, but I would love to put a price on it. And it's way more than people think it is. Like most people's jobs are done in an internal way with no external feedback, right? Like internally, it's like, does my boss think I'm doing a good job? Am I doing a good job for myself and my team? Great. I am doing my job
Starting point is 00:51:06 well. But when you are a public person, content creator, an entrepreneur with a following, you answer. Now, of course we don't because we have standards and because fuck the trolls, but like we answer to millions of people on a day to day basis. And like, as much as we can all say, oh yeah, like men being mean online, we don't pay attention to them. People screaming about like, oh, this is stupid. Like, okay, fine. But the emotional and physical toll that that takes over and over and over again on literally in like second by second, not day to day, but second to second, minute by minute, hour to hour basis. That's fucking crazy. And I think we're only just starting to talk about the mental toll that you have to deal with
Starting point is 00:51:51 in addition to keeping the lights on, creating the things that you're trying to create to make sure you're managing your team members, writing back emails, all of the rest of that. Oh gosh. I literally mic drop on everything you said. I couldn't agree with you more. It's frustrating sometimes because I think that as content
Starting point is 00:52:13 creators, we're told to kind of sit down, shut up, suck it up. And I believe that there is some truth to that. When people say, well, you chose to do this, you're not wrong. Kim, people are dying. There's a genocide happening. Right. Yeah. Exactly. And like, I get it. But I I've done the hard jobs. Like I didn't, you know, I wasn't a content creator my entire life. I've only been doing this two years. I used to have the shitty jobs. I used to be a telemarketer. I used
Starting point is 00:52:40 to work at a gym. I used to wake up really early. I used to commute. I used to take the metro. I've been there there so I understand where people are saying well, you have a really easy job and I agree I have the easiest job on the planet But that doesn't mean that it doesn't come with some cons and unfortunately those cons aren't physically difficult They can be depending on how it impacts your mental health, but they are mentally difficult and gosh I wish that, you know, my job came with guaranteed therapy because it's a lot of work.
Starting point is 00:53:10 And also, you know, when you become a content creator, and I'm not whining at all, I'm just letting people be aware that when you choose to do this, you do kind of sign away your privacy and your security. I loved being incognito. I didn't realize you know that it was so wonderful to walk down the street back in the day and no one would stop and talk to me because I'm an introvert. I get very like nervous when people come talk
Starting point is 00:53:37 to me but now I expect it every time I leave the house and you know if I have a bad day I can't show up that way with somebody that wants to come talk to me because that is the impression that I'll leave with them you know and people don't understand that sometimes I had a bad day sometimes I got bad news and you're really held to a pedestal that sometimes is impossible to please. I'm really like crying for you know I'm making 200k so a lot of people might not resonate with that but there's a lot that goes into it that mental health you know, I'm making 200k so a lot of people might not resonate with that, but there's a lot that goes into it that mental health, you know, has, it has its impacts and I've I've felt it. Also, the the work life balance is tough, like the hamster wheel of the internet
Starting point is 00:54:15 never turning off. It's impossible almost to take a vacation because you know, even when you're scrolling off, you know, when you're on your break, you're still doing research, you're still seeing what's out there and because you're on your phone, you get notifications all the time of different people pinging you. So there's trade-offs and it's just important to be aware of that before you decide to go all in.
Starting point is 00:54:37 The last thing I'll add is that, like you said, you answer to like one person, maybe five people in your nine to five when you're working your boss And your colleagues like you said we answered a millions of people every single day with our content and everybody has an opinion Which is great. I love to hear it But at the same time, you know when you open yourself up to that it can be really hard to like You know figure out the way to move. And so from a business perspective, it can be really loud. And so it's hard to navigate next steps in your strategy. But also, I don't have an HR department.
Starting point is 00:55:13 This is like the only job where it's legally like expected and allowed to be bullied horrifically or stalked. Like I, I, I go on the street to ask people what they do for a living and how much they make to help people get paid. I didn't ask for your opinion on my tattoos. I didn't ask for your opinion on my weight. I didn't ask for your opinion on my hairline. You know, like, all of these things are completely unrelated, but I get them on a daily basis. And so it does get very loud. The metaphor I've come up with to the best explain this experience to somebody who isn't
Starting point is 00:55:46 a public person, who isn't online. Imagine you're in your home and someone comes and knocks on your door every two seconds and expects to be let in. And let's say you let them into your home and then they decide to tell you that you're fat and unlovable and that no person would ever desire you or want you or that your advice is stupid and bad and you should just shut up or that actually this other person that they follow is way better. Why aren't you more like them? What would you do?
Starting point is 00:56:23 You would kick them out of your home. If you had the, if you invited somebody into your home and said, Hey, I'm inviting you over for dinner. Right. And in this example, you're coming onto my Instagram, you're coming onto my TikTok. That's my home. And then you yell at me and you tell me I'm too fat and too ugly and never going to be anything. What am I going to do? I'm not going to let you stay. No. Yeah. And then the other version of this too, is it's just like, you know, I think about you because a lot of the feedback you and I get is lovely and like, Oh gosh, we get messages that we change people's lives.
Starting point is 00:56:53 Right. But like that's still overwhelming because again, other metaphor I use, if I'm walking down the street and a hundred people yell at me and 95 of them say, you changed my life. I love you. This is great. But five of them are awful. It's still overwhelming. It's still overwhelming to get that much feedback and opinions from people. That's what I have tried to like convey to people who this is not your industry. This is not what you're doing. Yes. Do we have like cushy jobs? Do we get to sit
Starting point is 00:57:20 at home? Yeah, we do. There's a lot of privilege to that. And also, I cannot tell you that like, I'm in a better place now. But over the past two years, my mental health has been awful. Oh, I'm in the thick of it. Right. I've had physical symptoms from the stress of people's opinions and people's feedback. And like, you want to let it roll off your back. Nobody's wired that way. No, and you're, you're lying if you say that you aren't because we're all human. You're lying if you say that you're not affected by five comments, four positive and one negative. You're going
Starting point is 00:57:57 to think about that one negative. Now imagine you're a content creator and you get five or 10 of those a day. They stick with you. It is difficult. It's like golden handcuffs. And so it's just important to be aware of the cons and have strategies in place to handle it. I think the most important thing is having really great people around you and a great support system. My husband is everything to me. I will tell him about a comment and he makes me always feel better about it. And if you didn't, if you don't have that in place, it can be a very tough job and have those impacts. Like I have had so many bouts of depression and burnout in the past two years that is important to talk about that is a company meant to the
Starting point is 00:58:41 jobs that we have. And not to harp too much, we'll move on in a second, but to your point about feeding the beast, like that's the other thing is it's like our jobs are never done. There's no like task you can check off. It's like I posted by three TikToks today and I got to post them again tomorrow and the day after that and for the foreseeable future for forever. If I don't post three TikToks, guess what happens is the business suffers. And it's something that I've had to learn to be okay with. Is that like, okay, all right, we're not going to post on TikTok today. That's fine.
Starting point is 00:59:13 I can see a direct impact on the business when I don't, but I have other things to do or I need to take a vacation or I just don't want to be online today. I don't want to show my face. I don't want to look at my face today. Yeah. I feel that there's so many days where I'm like, I don't want to film today. Like, or I've been in back to back calls, and I still have to edit, I still have to go film. It's never done. It's it's the hamster wheel. So it's it's
Starting point is 00:59:39 like Groundhog Day every day. I want to transition us because I mentioned at the beginning of this interview, I'd love to talk about some of the transparency laws that are happening right now. So current state of affairs on federal pay transparency laws. What does this mean? Tell me what's in the pipeline. Yeah, lots of exciting movement with pay transparency laws. I think the the launch of our page was timing was so perfect,
Starting point is 01:00:03 because right when we launched was when this momentum started moving with these pay transparency laws. It really started with Colorado and California. They were some of the first states to have these really all-inclusive pay transparency laws, which means that companies that qualify more often than not, they have to have like five or 10 employees. Each state is different.
Starting point is 01:00:23 So please check your state's language to see who qualifies. But the gist of it is, is that companies have to list the pay range, a fair range for internal and external job postings, promotions and transfers. It differs per state, I'll say again, so please check your state's laws. But these are really monumental laws
Starting point is 01:00:44 that are gonna help workers understand, you know, how much is this job actually paying? You know, and how do I compare? How do I position myself in the best place to make what I what I'm worth? And it also helps close that pay gap that we're already seeing the results of that in Colorado and California. So we have 15 states, I believe now have pay transparency laws either signed or in the works. I've been involved, luckily I'm so grateful to
Starting point is 01:01:12 organizations that have reached out to me because I am NOT a lawyer, I don't have a legal background, and some of this really is like hard for me to keep up with. And so organizations like the ACLU, the National Women's Law Center, have tapped me, you know, and been like, hey, this is what's happening. Can you come testify? And thankfully, I've been able to so far testify in support of DC, Virginia and Maryland pay transparency laws, which I live in the DMV. So it really goes like so much further for me to feel like I'm helping, you know, my fellow constituents and in my state.
Starting point is 01:01:46 Unfortunately, Virginia's governor vetoed our pay transparency law very recently. And so we are probably going to have to appeal, go back to the books, you know, wait for a different governor and try again. I don't know the exact roadmap ahead, but I'm going to be working closely with organizations to make sure that we can get this for Virginia constituents. The Maryland pay transparency law is on the governor's desk and it is expected to go into signature and that it will be signed. So hopefully in a couple of weeks the news will come out there that it'll go into effect.
Starting point is 01:02:21 And DC's pay range act passed and it is going to go into effect this June. So very exciting. And lots of other states like Massachusetts, Illinois, they have pay transparency laws like in the works, like they are moving through the legislature, you know, the steps of becoming a law. So we're on the up and the momentum is really in our in our favor. Nicole Zakem I imagine if anybody listening wants to support those laws, they can call their legislation in their states and advocate for them? Absolutely. Okay, cool.
Starting point is 01:02:52 Yes, please. If you are listening and your state does not have one or has one in the works, it means so much for you to use your voice because what we are up against is really well-paid lobbyists that are repping private corporations that it helps their bottom line to underpay people. What we need to do is use our voice, just like how we're using a social platform like TikTok and Instagram to share this information and create momentum. Using your voice and talking to your your legally elected representatives is the
Starting point is 01:03:25 best way to have an impact in your own community. Hannah, if I can ever lend my voice to any of those, please let me know. I will fly out. We'll make it happen. Good to know. Awesome. Yeah, we're gonna we're gonna make big things happen. I think in the next few years, like all of these, you know, not just you and me, but financial influencers and content creators as a whole that are really involved in social impact movements. And that's probably why they're trying to ban TikTok, but we won't be faced. That's a whole other thing. That's a whole other topic. A whole other topic. Hannah, I am so thankful for your work. I'm so thankful for your friendship and your collaboration. It's hard out there for financial creators who are women, but
Starting point is 01:04:04 we are banding together and doing the best we can. So I would love to know where people can find you and learn more about your work. Thank you so much, Tori. This has been an absolute pleasure. I'm so honored. As a listener of your podcast, I'm like, oh my God, I can't believe I'm here. Patting myself on the back, super excited. But if anyone is interested in what I do, you can follow us at Salary Transparency. We're on all platforms. I had to get on all platforms, so my dad could watch it because he doesn't have TikTok or Instagram. So if you don't have TikTok or Instagram, we're also on YouTube, we're on Facebook, we're on LinkedIn, we're on Twitter. You can find us on all those platforms.
Starting point is 01:04:38 And if you want to contribute your salary anonymously, you can go to salarytransparency.com. We have an anonymous salary database there that you can use for your own market research as well. I love it. We'll link it down below too. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you so much to Hannah for joining us. You can follow her at salary transparent streets
Starting point is 01:04:58 on TikTok or Instagram. Transparentstreet.com is a great place to go for her resources. She has a bunch of incredible salary resources, salary like aggregators, you can see what other people in your industry are getting paid. She's just doing incredible work around advocating for not only transparency at the individual level, but at the policy level too. Thank you as always for joining us Financial Feminist. We appreciate you. We appreciate you listening to the show and we'll talk to you later. Go talk to somebody about your salary. I dare you.
Starting point is 01:05:26 Okay, bye. Thank you for listening to Financial Feminist, a Her First 100K podcast. Financial Feminist is hosted by me, Tori Dunlap, produced by Kristen Fields, associate producer Tameisha Grant, researched by Ariel Johnson, audio and video engineering by Alyssa Medcalf, marketing and operations by Karina Patel, Amanda LeFeu, Elizabeth McCumber, Masha Bakhmakeva, Taylor Cho, Kaylin Sprinkle, Sasha Bonar, Claire Karonin, Darrell Anne Aiman, and Janelle Reisner,
Starting point is 01:06:01 promotional graphics by Mary Stratton, photography by Sarah Wolf, and theme music by Jonah Cohen Sound. A huge thanks to the entire Her First Hundred K team and community for supporting this show. For more information about Financial Feminist, Her First Hundred K, our guests, and episode show notes, visit financialfeministpodcast.com. This episode is brought to you by the Yap Media Podcast Network. I'm Hala Taha, CEO of the award-winning digital media empire, Yap Media, and host of Yap Young and Profiting Podcast, a number one entrepreneurship and self-improvement podcast where you can listen, learn, and profit.
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