{"id":173190,"date":"2025-08-25T02:15:20","date_gmt":"2025-08-25T02:15:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/173190\/"},"modified":"2025-08-25T02:15:20","modified_gmt":"2025-08-25T02:15:20","slug":"the-white-collar-job-market-is-frozen-now-bartenders-and-baristas-are-seeing-bigger-wage-growth-than-desk-workers","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/173190\/","title":{"rendered":"The white-collar job market is frozen\u2014now bartenders and baristas are seeing bigger wage growth than desk workers"},"content":{"rendered":"<ul>\n<li><strong>For the Gen Zers fortunate <\/strong>enough to start in today\u2019s white-collar job market, don\u2019t anticipate any raises. Since the pandemic, demand for in-person services has pushed up wages in hospitality and health care, outpacing inflation. Meanwhile, white-collar tech jobs are in a freeze, with AI being one of the culprits.\u00a0<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>Gen Z graduates are facing an increasingly tough reality after tossing their caps into the air: Not only are their skills being outpaced by ChatGPT, but they aren\u2019t getting raises consistent enough to splurge on anything more than an oat-milk latte.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>But there\u2019s now a new nail in coffin: Their non-degree friends working as <a href=\"https:\/\/www.bankrate.com\/banking\/federal-reserve\/wage-to-inflation-index\/#catching-up\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\" aria-label=\"Go to https:\/\/www.bankrate.com\/banking\/federal-reserve\/wage-to-inflation-index\/#catching-up\" class=\"sc-19cc8fd2-0 kuWizV\">bartenders and baristas<\/a> are seeing bigger pay raises than they are. Wage growth in leisure and hospitality is outpacing white-collar jobs, flipping the script on where young workers can find earning momentum.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>A <a href=\"https:\/\/www.bankrate.com\/banking\/federal-reserve\/wage-to-inflation-index\/#catching-up\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\" aria-label=\"Go to https:\/\/www.bankrate.com\/banking\/federal-reserve\/wage-to-inflation-index\/#catching-up\" class=\"sc-19cc8fd2-0 kuWizV\">new analysis by Bankrate<\/a> found hospitality workers\u2019 wages have risen by nearly 30% since 2021, outpacing inflation by more than 4%. Health care workers have similarly outpaced inflation and seen their salaries go up by around 25% in the past four years.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>However, those working in professional and business services, the finance industry, and education have not seen wage gains that keep up with inflation. Teachers, for example, are pacing at nearly 5% below inflation.<\/p>\n<p>Yet, Gen Z isn\u2019t likely to flock to work at the local pub or <a href=\"https:\/\/fortune.com\/company\/starbucks\/\" target=\"_blank\" aria-label=\"Go to https:\/\/fortune.com\/company\/starbucks\/\" class=\"sc-19cc8fd2-0 kuWizV\" rel=\"noopener\">Starbucks<\/a>.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>White-collar jobs such as entry-level tech gigs still come with larger paychecks\u2014<a href=\"https:\/\/www.ziprecruiter.com\/Salaries\/Entry-Level-Tech-Job-Salary#:~:text=How%20much%20does%20an%20Entry,Tech%20Job%20on%20ZipRecruiter%20today.\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\" aria-label=\"Go to https:\/\/www.ziprecruiter.com\/Salaries\/Entry-Level-Tech-Job-Salary#:~:text=How%20much%20does%20an%20Entry,Tech%20Job%20on%20ZipRecruiter%20today.\" class=\"sc-19cc8fd2-0 kuWizV\">averaging at $19.57 an hour <\/a>in the U.S. But in the hospitality industry, an <a href=\"https:\/\/www.ziprecruiter.com\/Salaries\/Barista-Salary--in-New-York\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\" aria-label=\"Go to https:\/\/www.ziprecruiter.com\/Salaries\/Barista-Salary--in-New-York\" class=\"sc-19cc8fd2-0 kuWizV\">average barista<\/a> makes about $16 dollars per hour. Still, since inflation first spiked a few years ago, wages have still been falling behind for white-collar workers. Workers in retail, trade, health care, leisure, hospitality, and food services making less per hour, are watching their paychecks grow more over time.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>The white-collar freeze\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Across the white-collar job market, workers\u2014especially fresh-faced graduates like Gen Z\u2014are being hit with another tough reality: Workers in white-collar financial activities or professional and business services are encountering a slower pace of hiring.<\/p>\n<p>While entry-level workers crave the glam of tech offices and cold brew on tap, just this week, <a href=\"https:\/\/fortune.com\/2025\/08\/20\/meta-ai-race-superintelligence-investors-billions-in-ad-revenue\/\" target=\"_self\" aria-label=\"Go to https:\/\/fortune.com\/2025\/08\/20\/meta-ai-race-superintelligence-investors-billions-in-ad-revenue\/\" class=\"sc-19cc8fd2-0 kuWizV\" rel=\"noopener\">Meta paused hiring<\/a> for its new artificial intelligence division, ending a spending spree that saw it acquire a wave of costly AI researchers and engineers, and included <a href=\"https:\/\/fortune.com\/2025\/06\/18\/metas-100-million-signing-bonuses-openai-staff-extreme-ai-talent-war\/\" target=\"_self\" aria-label=\"Go to https:\/\/fortune.com\/2025\/06\/18\/metas-100-million-signing-bonuses-openai-staff-extreme-ai-talent-war\/\" class=\"sc-19cc8fd2-0 kuWizV\" rel=\"noopener\">signing bonuses of $100 million<\/a>. <a href=\"https:\/\/www.businessinsider.com\/amazon-ceo-says-generative-ai-expect-job-cuts-2025-6\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\" aria-label=\"Go to https:\/\/www.businessinsider.com\/amazon-ceo-says-generative-ai-expect-job-cuts-2025-6\" class=\"sc-19cc8fd2-0 kuWizV\">Amazon<\/a> CEO Andy Jassy also has said in addition to \u201cefficiency gains,\u201d he expects AI could mean white-collar job cuts.<\/p>\n<p>And it\u2019s not just desk workers who are being challenged. <a href=\"https:\/\/www.bankrate.com\/banking\/federal-reserve\/wage-to-inflation-index\/#kept-up\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\" aria-label=\"Go to https:\/\/www.bankrate.com\/banking\/federal-reserve\/wage-to-inflation-index\/#kept-up\" class=\"sc-19cc8fd2-0 kuWizV\">Education <\/a>saw the biggest wage gap relative to inflation, followed by construction.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>And even if Gen Zers are lucky enough to land that tech job of their dreams, their promotions may not follow.\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/gusto.com\/resources\/gusto-insights\/2025-workforce-promotions\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\" aria-label=\"Go to https:\/\/gusto.com\/resources\/gusto-insights\/2025-workforce-promotions\" class=\"sc-19cc8fd2-0 kuWizV\">A recent survey<\/a> found that promotion rates have slowed after surging during the Great Resignation. The overall promotion rate was 10.3% in May 2025, down from a peak of 14.6% in May 2022.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Introducing the 2025 Fortune Global 500<\/strong>, the definitive ranking of the biggest companies in the world. <a href=\"https:\/\/fortune.com\/ranking\/global500\/?&amp;itm_source=fortune&amp;itm_medium=article_tout&amp;itm_campaign=plea_text\" target=\"_self\" aria-label=\"Go to https:\/\/fortune.com\/ranking\/global500\/?&amp;itm_source=fortune&amp;itm_medium=article_tout&amp;itm_campaign=plea_text\" class=\"sc-19cc8fd2-0 kuWizV\" rel=\"noopener\">Explore this year&#8217;s list.<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"For the Gen Zers fortunate enough to start in today\u2019s white-collar job market, don\u2019t anticipate any raises. Since&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":173191,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[14],"tags":[2431,738,64,302,98678,46419,3991,16303,420,15876,340,252,43805,98679,20858,22195,242,67,132,68,44171],"class_list":{"0":"post-173190","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-jobs","8":"tag-amazon","9":"tag-artificial-intelligence","10":"tag-business","11":"tag-chatgpt","12":"tag-cisco-systems","13":"tag-entry-level","14":"tag-gen-z","15":"tag-graduation","16":"tag-jobs","17":"tag-layoffs","18":"tag-meta","19":"tag-microsoft","20":"tag-nursing","21":"tag-office-365","22":"tag-oracle","23":"tag-starbucks","24":"tag-tech","25":"tag-united-states","26":"tag-unitedstates","27":"tag-us","28":"tag-young-workers"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/115086997928715398","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/173190","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=173190"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/173190\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/173191"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=173190"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=173190"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=173190"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}