I'm 25 and I Finally Found a Job with Benefits!

I have news: I'm 25 and I finally found a job with benefits. I know what you're thinking, "That's pretty young! Good job!"

I appreciate the sentiment, but I don't want to take the congratulatory angle with this article. Don't get me wrong, I'm super proud of myself, and finding a company that believes in me enough to provide benefits is amazing. However, that's just the problem: why isn't it the norm anymore to enter the workforce with benefits?

Instead, I want to discuss why it's not okay that I've worked for 3 different companies after graduating and it wasn't until the 4th that I was offered health insurance, retirement accounts, and decent pay (the 'above paycheck-to-paycheck' kind). I want to discuss how wrong it feels that I live in the self-proclaimed best country on the planet, yet only 55% of "small" employers, or those with less than 100 employees, offer medical benefits to their full time employees. I want to discuss how we allowed the amount of Fortune 500 companies that offer Pensions to drop from 59% in 1998 to 16% in 2017 (not to mention the imminent reduction of public service pensions).

I also want to discuss that if you're reading this, you most likely have a job with benefits and aren't privy to the underprivileged section of our population that doesn't. You've probably always had a job with benefits because you opted for a mid or large sized company where benefits are more common, you had family connections at the right places, or you were born into enough wealth to simply open up an IRA on your own. I say this because a majority of the people I know on LinkedIn are from my university days, and I know a ton of y'all went the consulting firm route instead of pursuing your degree field, for exactly these reasons. I just want you to be aware that there are an excruciating amount of people that have not been afforded these "luxuries" in life (benefits should be a human right, just saying). Please read this with an open mind and don't assume that just because you have benefits and great wages, that everyone else must as well. You are literally the exception, not the rule.

Health, Wages, & Retirement

Health

My second and third career after university - admittedly at small companies that are not required to offer medical benefits - opted out of providing health insurance to its employees, instead deciding on a "stipend" model. If you're not familiar with benefit stipends, basically the company will agree to pay you a set amount - usually $300/mo or so - to make up for not having medical benefits. This sounds better than nothing, until I realized that when I became eligible for those stipend payouts (at 3 months and 6 months, respectively), I was told, "Oh, we stopped providing that benefit! We need to update our Employee Handbook." Literally, it was the same line at both companies. Now I might be a bit pessimistic here, but that leads me to believe many small companies institute bait-and-switch benefits in order to attract talent while keeping their costs low. And I get it, the world isn't exactly fair to small businesses either. But it's messed up. Like, really messed up. Likewise, more and more small companies are opting out of benefits all together, providing only those that are legally required: two 15-minute breaks a day, a 30-minute unpaid lunch, paid travel time, and withholding necessary taxes. Not even joking, that is how the benefits section of my third post-university job looked. But what am I to do? I have to pay the bills. When I helped the Director hire new talent, the feedback from applicants was always, "I'm sorry, but I can't accept a job that doesn't offer medical benefits." And I always heard the same thing from my boss: "Well, we don't want someone working in Social Services just to get health insurance. They need to have the passion for it." As if passion equates to doing something until it kills you due to the lack of means to survive. But I guess that's why I'm the worker and not the Executive Director / CEO. Not to mention, even if you are lucky enough to find an employer that will cough up medical benefits, health care costs are growing faster than the average wage increase in our nation. It's no wonder that in my home state, 1 in 3 adults are either uninsured or underinsured. So either way, you better find a job willing to pay you enough to cover immense out-of-pocket costs regardless of coverage.

Wages

Now, I want to do something uncomfortable. I want to discuss my salary history. I know, what a taboo thing to do! But I was on the phone with my mother recently; it was right after hearing the news that I had been offered my new job. We discussed how incredible it is that I am now making DOUBLE - triple if you count the benefits conversion - what I made in 2017, 2018, and 2019. My first job as a Social Services Case Manager netted me about $25k/year, and my third job as a Social Services Employment Manager was pretty much on par. Although my mother didn't catch the irony in the conversation, she told me, "One of my first jobs when I left my country to live in the U.S. after high school was at Head Start, and I only made $25k/year." That was in 1997. Yes, I did the math (AKA used Google). My mother - who, admittedly, worked her butt off to make an early career in childcare education with the little resources she was given as a lower SES immigrant - was making $40k/year in current inflation dollars back in 1997. I, on the other hand, was making $15k/year in 1997-inflation dollars over 20 years later. How is it that my mother, back in 1997, was making 1.6x what I made in 2017, 2018, and 2019? (Mind you, this is comparing salaries in the same field in the same state. There is no excuse for this.) Could it be because the labor share of income has decreased from 65% to 57% since 1974? Or because our purchasing power hasn't budged since 1964? Or because real wages have only increased for the wealthiest 10% consistently since 1979? Or because the financial payoff of a university degree peaked in the year 2000 and hasn't made much of a difference since (not to mention the explosive rise in tuition rates)? Or because all of these factors combined, sprinkled with a myriad of other ones not mentioned in honor of brevity?

It's almost as if socioeconomic upward mobility via an increase in real wages is discouraged under our current state of capitalism. (Yes, I did just cite a tweet.)

Retirement

What about retirement though? Please tell me retirement isn't falling to the wayside just like medical benefits and wages! Before I explore that, I want to get this out of the way:

• Defined Benefit: What 'Pensions' are considered. Employer-paid, guaranteed income upon retirement. Investment Risk is 100% on the Employer, while the Employee receives a monthly amount regardless of how the market performs.
• Defined Contribution: What '401(k)s' are considered. Employee-paid, non-guaranteed income upon retirement. Investment Risk is 100% on the Employee, and their monthly income is entirely up to how the market performs.

Notice the subtle difference between the relic of the past (Pensions) and the modern star child (401[k]s): the former guarantees retirement out of the employer's pocket while the latter forces the employee to assume the risk for whatever happens in the market based on money they themselves provide. It's no surprise that our current state of capitalism has tilted to the side that places the risk on the employee opposed to the employer. That alone is proof that our past generations were better off than we are now - and that's if you're lucky enough to have a job with benefits (if you're lucky enough to have a job at all during the pandemic). At their height in the mid-to-late 1900s, Pensions ensured that the older generations were set for life, and in the meantime those generations were able to concoct a plan that would make it much harder for the younger generations to accomplish the same thing: 401(k)s. (Side note: if you work in the nonprofit sector or the government, your version of a 401[k] may be a 403[b] or a 457[b].) As mentioned earlier, it only took 19 years in the early 2000s for Fortune 500 companies to drop Pensions from 59% to 16%, presumably opting instead for 401(k)s. This change in fiscal affairs is so comparably undesirable that even financial experts suggest contributing to your personal IRA before thinking about your Defined Contribution plan at work. How did we go from a society that has guaranteed retirement, hands-free, to a society that allows you to assume 100% of the risk with your own money, and even then experts question whether or not you truly should? (Context Note: if your employer offers a 401[k] match, 100% meet that before moving to your IRA. Regardless of how worse DCs are than DBs, they're still better than placing your money in your mattress or even a savings account.)

Don't even get me started on Social Security as a means of retiring. (Just prepare for the possibility of a 24% decrease in benefits, in the worst case scenario. Again, another system that favors the older generations.) I don't even want to think about what the future of finances will look like for my Gen Z brother.

The Rule, Not The Exception

Yes, 25 is pretty young, and yes, it does feel like an absolute miracle that I found a job with actual benefits. I am 100% proud of myself in the context of how the employment game operates in the United States. I definitely lucked out, and I won't let go how grateful I am for as long as I work at my current company (probably forever). However, I also believe that the benefits and pay I receive now should be baseline - provided to all Americans. I don't believe I should have to feel grateful for what should be the bare minimum: livable wages, healthcare, and guaranteed retirement. These benefits should be the rule, not the exception.

And yes, I am doing better than the 78% of Americans who are living paycheck-to-paycheck - I am grateful for that. However, we need to do better as a nation. If the U.S. refuses to establish Universal Basic Income, the least it could do is ensure its residents have their physiological and basic needs met.

In our current system, that means universal medical benefits, guaranteed retirement accounts, and livable wages. Not funneling those costs into the hands of the 400 richest people in the world.

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I don't claim to be a Benefits Counselor, HR Benefits/Compensation Specialist, or Financial Analyst. Therefore, if I have misrepresented or flat-out misunderstood a concept listed in this article, please reach out to me so I may apply the appropriate edits. Furthermore, please read my sources to paint a bigger picture for yourself.

To help ease the wealth inequality of undocumented immigrants in our country - who pay taxes to provide valuable social programs that they often don't have access to - please consider donating to the Immigrant Worker Safety Net Fund. This cause ensures working class immigrants receive every penny you donate to offset the fact that they are not eligible for government assistance during the pandemic.

Additionally, if you are struggling to obtain or maintain employment during the pandemic, I have created a 100+ page document filled with résumé, cover letter, and reference list ideas that I designed. If you find one you like, I will create an Employment Packet for you for free.