re: Is Gen Z etc totally out of touch about salaries?

I think most of them are disconnected from the reality of real life and “adult” expenses.

To be fair, the wages aren’t great, but they also have no idea how to value the other benefits.

My company, often as a ploy to reflect their benefits vs competitors, uses the “total compensation” approach. Where they basically just add up all their benefits into one big attractive number.

So that $30k salary, may really be equivalent to a $50k salary at another company with much weaker benefits.