Young, Ambitious Workers Have High Hopes to Retire Early

The pandemic years apparently ushered in a workforce cultural shift among younger workers who have set their sights on working hard now in order to retire at an earlier age.  

In a study of 3,000 working Americans, experience management firm Qualtrics found that more than a third (35%) of workers overall say their career ambitions decreased over the past three years. However, younger workers — Gen Z and Millennials (18-34 years old) — are growing more ambitious, with 35% reporting higher career goals than they had pre-pandemic. 

In fact, the study found that younger workers are more likely to aspire to higher job titles than older workers. A larger share of young workers wants to establish their own business, be part of the C-suite, and lead a full department or multiple teams than the percentage of older employees who want to hold those same positions, according to the study. Just 8% of young workers want to be individual contributors and not manage others. 

But this career ambition may be driven by a separate goal of enjoying their life outside of work obligations, the study suggests. The largest “motivating factor” for young workers to do their best at work is earning money, whereas older workers are more motivated by “personal pride” in their work.   

What’s more, these young workers say they do not plan to work until they can receive full benefits from Social Security. Nearly a quarter (24%) of them plan to retire early, and more than 4 in 10 (41%) of those “would-be” early retirees want to do so by the time they turn 50. By comparison, 21% of workers between the ages of 35 and 54 plan to retire before they turn 67. 

“The pandemic pushed people to think differently about the role that work plays in their lives, and we’re seeing the impact of that,” notes Qualtrics Chief Workplace Psychologist Dr. Benjamin Granger. “While it’s not surprising that growth and development are important and career ambitions change as we age or enter different stages of life, this data suggests that the levers organizations pull to attract and retain both younger and older workers may need to differ.” 

Ambition and Limits

At the same time, there are limitations as to how much extra work young workers are willing to take on to advance in their careers, the study notes. Three-quarters (75%) of young workers say they are likely to accept a promotion with a 10% pay raise if they must work up to five extra hours per week, but that drops to 37% who would take a similar promotion that required more than eight extra hours of work each week. In comparison, 40% of workers aged 55 and over would still take that promotion. 

The firm also notes that earlier research shows that, while the majority (52%) of workers would be willing to take a pay cut to work at a company that has values better aligned with their own, Gen Z and Millennials are the most concerned about company values when it comes to choosing whether to stay with their current employer.

Gen Z is the most likely to say they would take a pay cut to work at a company with better values, with more than two-thirds (68%) saying they would take a 5% pay cut or more, compared to just 35% of Boomers.

As to the significance of the overall findings, Qualtrics points out that Gen Z and Millennials combined make up more than 40% of the American population and are a growing share of the labor force. At the same time, there were about 2 million more retirements than expected during the pandemic, concentrated among workers 65 years and older. 

Career Ambition by Age