The TikTok phenomenon Salary Transparent Street (STS) hinges on a traditional system: Hannah Williams, a cheery and approachable 26-year-old, stops folks on the road in numerous cities and asks them what they do and the way a lot they make.
Lower than two years into its existence, STS has clearly hit on the zeitgeist, amassing 1.3 million TikTok followers and practically 32 million likes throughout every of Williams’ short-form movies. She additionally sends out a e-newsletter, retains a running database of salaries in numerous jobs throughout the U.S., and has printed negotiation guides and interview pointers.
This week, Williams landed on Forbes’ 30 Under 30 record. Propelled by her dedication to normalize cash conversations amongst all demographics—she says youthful folks have been extra prone to share their pay than older folks and ladies extra so than males—she’s, per Forbes, testified on behalf of DC’s Pay Vary Act, which might mandate all DC job listings to include salaries; introduced her digicam crew to just about half the nation; and surpassed $1 million in model offers.
“A lot of people don’t know how to price themselves in the market…and that’s why Salary Transparent Street exists—to try to help advocate for employees to do market research to figure out what they should be asking for so employers don’t take advantage of them,” Williams told Fortune final yr.
So it’s value noting when Williams, in her true to type candor, shared with Fortune this week that she gave herself a whopping pay lower.
Given her partnership with Capital One and the jarringly high pay most influencers can command, you’ll be able to think about that Williams rakes in a hefty wage as a TikToker. When she threw herself into content material creation full-time in Might 2022, she says she set her personal wage at $200,000, up from the $115,000 she was beforehand making as a senior information analyst at CATHEXIS, a authorities contractor agency exterior DC. At the moment, she’s at $125,000—a $75,000 self-imposed pay lower. (The common U.S. salaried employee earns just over $59,400.)
The large cause for paring down? “I didn’t want to hold the company back, in terms of growth, in order to pay myself more,” Williams tells Fortune.
To be able to discover success within the quickly evolving creator financial system, you want a long-term strategy. Which means eschewing any form of “get-rich-quick” mentality, she says.
Williams understands the impulse. “When you see money coming in, it can be tempting to pay yourself a high salary, because you think, ‘I do the work,’” she explains. “But right now, I’m more invested in growing my team, improving my content, and setting up the page to grow on its own without me having to watch it 24/7.”
Working the ship
Williams, in contrast to most staff, is uniquely suited to take such a major pay lower. That’s primarily as a result of it was on her phrases; she’s half of a double-income-no-kids (DINK) family, and as founder/CEO, she makes the foundations. She’s additionally ramping up her sponsorships, not too long ago partnering with Deputy, a software program platform for managing hourly staff, to attract extra consideration to shift staff who don’t make an annual wage in any respect.
When she went full-time at Wage Clear Road, Williams says her then-fiancé, now-husband was making $112,000, and for his or her way of life in Alexandria, Virginia, that put them in fine condition. “We knew how much we could live off, and we felt that while we made that sum of money, we were doing really great, getting on top of debt,” she says. Plus, the 2 share frugal values and even had a micro-wedding earlier this yr. “As long as bills are paid, I’m happy,” she says.
When she was making $200,000 earlier than the lower, she says she was paying her husband $65,000 as her cameraman. “So I thought, $265,000, that’s a lot more than we were making combined before [I left my data analyst role],” she remembers. “We can afford the pay cut. We know we have a very good budget, we know our expenses, and know exactly what we need to be on top of it.”
She and her husband are the one full-time workers of STS, which has since swelled right into a hub of resources and content material throughout numerous channels, all with a important purpose of serving to improve pay fairness by advocacy and transparency. She additionally pays “five or six” part-time staff to assist with social media administration, accounting, and web site growth.
However pay cuts aren’t for everyone. Job hopping—which Williams herself has executed and staunchly advocates for—is usually one of the simplest ways of doing the alternative: Grabbing increased salaries. Staying at one group can shortly result in pay stagnation, whereas transferring round each two years or so ups the probabilities of boosting your wage higher than just about anything. Taking a pay lower for a brand new job can set you back years and years; each elevate builds on the wage that got here earlier than it, so it’s crucial to start out as excessive as you’ll be able to—and keep there.
Typically, the one occasions it is smart take a pay lower are if you’re switching industries or in case you’re getting a method higher work-life steadiness in alternate. (Working example: Nearly two-thirds of staff say they’d take a pay lower to have the ability to earn a living from home.) Or, maybe, in case you’re an entrepreneur like Williams who feels it’s a strategic long-term transfer.
At this stage of her model’s progress—Williams printed her first video in April 2022—it’s wiser to take a pay lower if it means investing elsewhere, she says. However, she provides, “Everyone else should make more money.”
