Gen Z is breaking our biggest social taboo by sharing their salaries online — but 'loud budgeting' can cost everyone
Gen Z is breaking our biggest social taboo by sharing their salaries online — but 'loud budgeting' can cost everyone.
Gen Z has made a different kind of text feel normal: "Can't do dinner this month, saving up the extra cash." They don't bother with an excuse — they just tell you what their money is doing and what they can't do because of it.
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On Dec. 29, 2023, comedian and writer Lukas Battle posted a TikTok announcing "loud budgeting" as the opposite of quiet luxury. His example: telling a friend he'd rather not spend gas money to come hear about their ex for three hours (1). The video was a hit, passing 1.5 million views. "It definitely started as a joke," he told CNN a few weeks later — before admitting the response had kind of sold him on his own idea (2).
Bank of America has been tracking the joke since 2024, when 38% of Gen Z said they did it. In the bank's 2026 Better Money Habits study, that went up to 42% — almost half of Gen Z now say they tell friends, directly at that, which plans they can and can't afford (3).
People have spent the last two years arguing online about whether that makes Gen Z honest or just loud. That debate is free. The part that actually matters is where saying a number out loud can cost you something — once in federal law, and once in what shows up on your paycheck.
Start with the thing everyone gets wrong about the grandparents.
Boomers aren't silent about money. In fact, (4)39% of them report talking about it with their friends. However, ask what they earn, and that drops to 3%. They'll discuss almost anything with a price tag — just not the one on themselves.
What you paid is a deal you can brag about. What you earn isn't.
That's the wall Gen Z is actually knocking down, and pretty much the only one. On money talk in general, they're not even the chattiest generation — millennials edge them out, 62% to 60%. When it comes to salary, though, Gen Z pulls ahead: 27% talk salary with friends, compared with 20% of millennials. Gen X is down at 12%.
"That's a big number," Bank of America President of Consumer, Retail and Preferred Holly O'Neill told Forbes, adding as a member of Gen X, that's definitely something she didn't do at their age (5).
There's a lot of worry underneath all the noise. A whopping 81% of Gen Z adults say it really matters to them that people see them as financially responsible, while 40% check in with family or friends about whether a purchase was okay — sometimes only after they've already bought it. About the same share (41%) feel financial guilt at least once a week.
Mostly nothing bad — actually, better than nothing bad. The National Labor Relations Act (NLRA) protects your right to talk about wages with coworkers, unions, reporters, even the wider public. The National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) doesn't hedge: "It is unlawful for the employer to have a work rule, policy, or hiring agreement that prohibits employees from discussing their wages with each other (6)." Your employer isn't allowed to punish, interrogate, threaten or spy on you over a pay conversation.
The NLRA leaves a lot of workers out of this legal protection. That includes anyone on a government payroll, independent contractors, supervisors, farmworkers, domestic workers, people employed by a parent or spouse and railroad and airline staff (7).
Now read that list again, and think about who's actually posting.
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Freelancers are usually treated as contractors, so this law often doesn't cover them. Teachers and city workers are on a government payroll, so they're out too. And "supervisor" is about what power you have, not what your job title says — "an employee's job title does not determine whether the employee is a supervisor," the Congressional Research Service notes (8). A shift lead who just passes on the schedule is probably still covered; a shift lead who decides who goes home early might not be.
