SoFi Blog

Money may not be everything, but it certainly plays a considerable role in your job satisfaction. And if you suspect you’re underpaid, your happiness can plummet—quickly. A recent Indeed survey revealed that only 19% of American workers are comfortable with how much they make and say they’d need a $6,000 raise to feel good about their salaries. Additionally, Glassdoor found that a majority of its users are underpaid by an average of $4,700.

If you think you deserve more, it’s worth doing some research to determine if you are truly underpaid—and if so, using that information to have a conversation with your boss. But before you set foot in his or her office, you have to understand how much of a raise to ask for and the best way to ask for a raise in that situation.

It’s that time of year again: back to school time. And while students are anxious to walk through their school halls, check off their back to school lists, and make sure they have plenty of friends in every class, graduates may be struggling to pay off their debt.

Unfortunately, student loan debt is at an all-time high and continues to rise. The average student loan debt for 2017 graduates was $39,400 amounting to $1.48 trillion in total student loan debt. This exceeds the amount of credit card debt in the United States by $694 billion.

In the summer of 2016, we surveyed around 1,000 young professionals for The Impact of Student Loan Benefits, a white paper outlining the effect of student loan debt on employee recruitment. We found over 60% of respondents reported that student loan debt is one of the top two financial concerns in their lives. While student loans are clearly a stressor for millennials, there’s a way to prevent them from causing students so much anxiety.

If you were to put together a “Dream Job” list, you’d probably have a few positions on there because you love the work (think illustrator or travel blogger)—and a few because you love the salary that comes with it (say, pro athlete).

Dream job ideas aside, when you’re searching for a new job, you’re probably pondering a similar question: What should you prioritize, the type of work that you’ll be doing or your income?

In an ideal world, you’d snag a well-paying job that you adore, but that combination isn’t exactly easy to find.

The bottom line: There’s no one answer that’s appropriate for everyone. After all, when it comes to what employees value the most, there’s a lot of variation from person to person. But there are some key questions that you can ask yourself in order to figure out what suits you best.

August 7 marks Black Women’s Equal Pay Day, the day that marks how far Black women have had to work into 2018 to make as much as white males did in 2017. This means that a Black woman would have to work for 19 months and one week to take home what a white male typically earns in 12 months.

To raise awareness of the pay gap and its negative effect on Black women and families, SoFi is proud to partner with Lean In to launch #38PercentCounts. It’s the second of three public awareness efforts this year rooted in the idea that equal pay matters.

By Jane Bianchi

Have you been fantasizing about leaving your job behind and going into an entirely new profession—but also worrying about what a big change would mean for your finances?

You’re not alone. “A lot of times people stick with a job out of fear. I’ll ask, ‘What are you afraid of?’ The person might say, ‘I’m afraid I won’t make as much money,’” says Nancy Von Horn, Senior Career Coach at SoFi. “But once you do some digging, you’ll likely find that it’s possible to make that money back.”

It’s true. Changing careers doesn’t have to mean accepting a lower salary. It just means that you have to do some soul-searching and some homework ahead of time. Ready to dive in? Follow this game plan.