Insights · January 10th, 2011
Glen was recently interviewed by Meghan Casserly of Forbes Magazine about the pay gap that many employees in younger generations are now dealing with. Meghan’s key point is that wage stagnation now for the Millennials may have long-term consequences for their career income, an idea that Glen agrees with. But as usual, Glen had additional insight and good information on the subject.
While Hiemstra agrees that Gen Y has suffered a financial blow, he points to evidence that their values—the way they think about money–are shifting in a positive way, just maybe as a result. “Even before the recession took hold, Millennials were already in the process of redefining the American Dream—downshifting away from big income to other strong values,” he says. “It’s a world view that depends less on financial success than personal goals and emotional connections, he says. Millennials have become less concerned about becoming wealthy than Gen X and the Baby boomers before them.
“Sure, it’s been reinforced by the economy,” says Hiemstra. But while it’s easy to understand a shift towards frugality in particularly tough times, he also sees it as a “truly a significant value shift that’s not likely to change back when the economy recovers.”
You can read the full article on the Forbes Website.
Writer: Catherine Otten was a Program Manager and Administrator for Futurist.com in 2007 and again in 2010-2011. We lost her to cancer in 2016. An avid outdoors woman and mountain climber, Catherine was especially passionate about the environment.
