Gen Z earning more than millennials at same age, according to thinktank

A report by Resolution Foundation, a think tank, found that real weekly pay at age 24 of workers born in the late 1990s was 12% higher than for cohorts born in the late 1980s.

Despite the number of NEETS – those not in employment or education – having risen to 1 million people last month, emerging research suggests a shift in young peoples’ job prospects.

Generation Z, which refers to those born between 1997 and 2002, are already receiving significantly higher weekly pay than previous generations. Between 2012 and 2025, it was workers aged 22-29 on median earnings that saw their hourly pay grow the most, by as much as 15%, compared to 4% for those in their 30s and 11% for all employees.

The question of whether a permanent upward trend or a temporary increase will occur hinges entirely on the economy’s response to global volatility

In fact, those born in the early 2000s are earning more than any age cohort going back to the 1950s. Millennials, which refers to people born between the early 1980s and mid 1990s, are the first generation to not receive higher wages than preceding cohorts.

Researchers have suggested this is largely due to contextual factors, including the 2008 financial crisis and the subsequent wage stagnation that has followed ever since.

The careers of most millennials commenced around the beginning, and peak, of the Global Financial Crisis in 2008, which the Resolution Foundation suggests is largely to blame for the decline in earnings compared to previous generations.

However, Charlie McCurdy, a Senior Economist at the Resolution Foundation, has said Gen Z’s higher earnings are already under threat. With the ongoing conflict in the Middle East, price rises may lead to higher inflation and reduced GDP growth for the UK economy, “threatening a fresh squeeze on pay packets” for the country’s youngest professionals.

While Gen Z has managed to outpace wage stagnation that struck millennials and previous generations alike, the question of whether a permanent upward trend or a temporary increase will occur hinges entirely on the economy’s response to global volatility.