8 in 10 young workers have another job

Good morning. Thanks for opening Still Monday. Keep voting, replying and sending it to the person whose LinkedIn says “full-time” but whose calendar quietly suggests otherwise.

For years, side hustles were sold as entrepreneurship.

Build something after work.

Monetize your passion.

Escape the 9-to-5.

A lot of people appear to have skipped the inspirational part.

They just need another paycheck.

Let’s get to work.

Goldman Sachs’ latest retirement research contains a number that deserves more attention from employers.

Eighty percent of Gen Z respondents and 77% of millennials said they were doing additional work outside their primary job.

For most, it was not optional.

Among those groups, 76% of Gen Z and 73% of millennials said they could not make ends meet without the extra income. Fortune

That changes the way we should think about second jobs.

Some people absolutely build side businesses because they want to.

Others freelance because they enjoy the freedom.

But when somebody finishes one workday and begins another because housing, debt, childcare and basic living costs are consuming the first paycheck, the side hustle is less an entrepreneurial movement than a household-budget strategy.

The impact follows people back into the primary job.

Goldman found 69% of Gen Z and 67% of millennials said worries about debt or household costs made it difficult to focus at work. Fortune

Employers often treat personal finances as something that happens after payroll.

The employee receives money.

The company’s responsibility ends.

Operationally, it is not that clean.

A worker who spent the previous evening delivering food, consulting, freelancing, selling products or working another shift arrives at the main job with the same 24 hours everybody else received.

The company may have purchased eight hours.

It did not purchase unlimited energy.

For managers, there is a temptation to make this a loyalty issue.

Why does this employee need another job?

Sometimes the better question is:

What does their financial reality tell us about this job?

That does not automatically mean the employer is underpaying. A person’s expenses, financial decisions and family obligations differ enormously.

But when the behavior becomes widespread, it becomes data.

Goldman found retirement confidence slipping too. The percentage of respondents who said they were on track toward retirement goals fell to 58% from 68% the previous year. The share increasing savings year over year dropped from 55% to 39%. Fortune

People are solving today first.

Tomorrow waits.

For workers, there is another uncomfortable lesson.

A second income can solve a cash problem and create a time problem.

If ten hours of weekend work produces little net income after travel, fees, taxes and lost recovery, the side hustle may be expensive in ways the bank account does not show.

The useful question is not whether everybody should have one.

It is whether the second job is actually improving your economics.

And whether the first job understands why so many people are looking for one.

Across all workers in Goldman’s survey, 61% reported doing additional work outside their primary role.

The American Dream apparently added a second shift.

Thirty-four percent of respondents said higher pay would be a primary motivation for changing jobs. Separate recent research cited by Fortune found workers are also increasingly considering commute costs when deciding which positions to pursue.

“Great office culture” is competing with gasoline.

Goldman says rising housing, household and debt costs are increasingly crowding out emergency savings, debt reduction and retirement contributions. Fortune

Future You would like a meeting.

Current You is at work.

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If you have outside income, stop looking only at revenue.

Take what the work actually pays after platform fees, travel, direct expenses and a reasonable allowance for taxes.

Then divide by the true time involved—including preparation, selling, admin and commuting.

A side project producing $800 can feel impressive.

If it required 50 hours, several evenings and every Saturday, the number looks different.

Money has a rate. So does your life.

Competitive compensation means competitive against other employers.

Employees experience compensation against rent, childcare, food, debt and transportation.

Those are different benchmarks.

Companies cannot solve the cost of living.

But they can examine whether the benefits they offer actually address what employees are struggling with: emergency savings, retirement contributions, financial guidance, predictable schedules and flexibility can all have economic value beyond base salary.

Sometimes the best retention tool is money.

Sometimes it is making the money go further.

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EMPLOYEE: Absolutely.

MANAGER: Great. See you tomorrow.

EMPLOYEE: Can’t. I’m working.

MANAGER: You’re working here tomorrow?

EMPLOYEE: No.

MANAGER: Oh.

“Hustle” sounds energetic.

Ambitious.

Instagrammable.

Second job because the first paycheck doesn’t cover everything sounds considerably less fun on a tote bag.

Language changes how problems look.

Vote below and tell us whether side work is normal among the people you know.

And send this issue to someone currently maintaining two calendars, three income streams and one increasingly theoretical weekend.

Technically Thursday. Emotionally Shift #2.

— The Still Monday Desk