Since April 2022, Hannah Williams, the Gen Z creator behind TikTok sensation Salary Transparent Street, has gained more than 1.3 million followers—and earned more than $1 million through partnerships with companies like Capital One, Indeed, and workforce management platform Deputy.
Her trademark woman-on-the-street conversations with workers about their jobs, benefits—and, most importantly, their paychecks—has gained the attention of social media users around the world. A former data analyst, Williams talks in complete sentences punctuated by clear numbers and a consistently polite smile. For many, Williams’ candid conversations has been the disarming way in which the idea of salary transparency entered their homes. And in recent years, this conversation has entered the public arena, as well. Since Williams launched Salary Transparent Street, states like California, Rhode Island, and Washington have enacted pay transparency laws—and cities like New York City has, as well.
Fast Company spoke with Williams about why the pay transparency movement has gone viral, what the next generation of workers wants from employers, and why pay transparency legislation at the state level is not enough to achieve equity.
This interview has been edited for length and clarity.
What was your career like before you started Salary Transparent Street?
Before starting salary, transparent street, I was a senior data analyst. I live right outside Washington, D.C., so I was a government contractor—which is very common in the D.C. area.
I got a degree in management from Georgetown University. I transferred there as a junior from Northern Virginia Community College. My parents were pretty chilled. They were okay with me doing anything, but I was one of those kids that never had any clue what I wanted to do. I changed my major, I think, five times my freshman year in college. And that was a benefit of going to community college. I had a full ride [through the] honors program, so [let’s] break the stigma that people that go to community college are dumb. It was actually the smartest decision for my wallet, and also to figure out what I wanted.
I realized I wasn’t super passionate about business, but I was good at it. So, I got a degree in management when I went to Georgetown and I was one of the few graduating seniors a year out from graduation day [who] didn’t have a job lined up, which was a bummer, because I felt like going to Georgetown was one of the best ways to get a really good job immediately out of school. I learned the hard way that that was completely wrong.
I got the only job that I could get, which was as a telemarketer cold-calling people and trying to sell them LexisNexis legal software. I did that for about a month or two. I cried every day. I absolutely hated it. Sales was not for me. By chance and totally by luck—I didn’t know anybody and it wasn’t a networking thing—this small government contracting firm found my résumé and my profile on Georgetown’s Hoya Saxa alumni network. They were looking for a junior analyst to just help them organize their data, put it into Excel files, and help them straighten up their system. I got the job, and that’s how I broke into data analysis. I used the title, experiences, and skills that I learned there to move up. I did a lot of job hopping through five total roles before I was at my last one, where I was making $115,000. Then I quit to do salary transparency full time.
Can you speak about your financial upbringing and how it impacted how you felt about going to community college?
At first, I didn’t like the decision to go to community college. I remember crying about it to my parents because I really wanted the “college experience.”
My parents weren’t very financially transparent, growing up. We didn’t talk about how much they made. My mom was a stay-at-home mom and my dad was a diplomat, so I actually grew up overseas traveling the world and then finally came to the states for high school.
I had the opportunity to get an honors scholarship and I got my full two years of college paid for. And at the time, I really wanted to go party, but my parents were very strict about community college being the smartest decision—and they were right.
I loved my community college experience. I actually am closer friends with those friends that I made in the two years that I was at [NVCC]. I still talk with them to this day. I think community college is such a valid and valuable option for students to pursue—whether they don’t know what they want to do, want to save money, or are just looking to get back into school if they’re an unconventional student.
What led you to create the Salary Transparent Street account?
I found out that I was underpaid at a job.
In 2021, I started a new job as a senior data analyst and I was making $90,000. I was two years out from school. Making that kind of money—my first job out of school paid $40,000—was something that I never imagined I’d ever have, and so I didn’t negotiate it. I didn’t do any market research. I just thought, “Wow, this is a great salary.” Shortly after starting the job, my only other colleague on my team was let go, and all his responsibilities became my responsibilities. My role drastically changed overnight. As I started getting put onto bigger projects and learning new skills, my colleague was not replaced and I was still responsible for all the work. I realized that I was probably underpaid compared to what I had been hired to do. As I did more market research, I found out that I was underpaid about $20,000 to $25,000, compared to what my peers were making in my market. When I asked for a raise, I was denied.
The only other option I had was to get a new job. In my first conversation with the company that ended up offering me my $115,000 salary, they asked me what my salary requirements were, and I had a light bulb moment where I had done all my market research, I knew that I could earn between $100,000 to $120,000. I was going to ask for $105,000, but I didn’t know what the company’s budget was. I felt like they were the ones that should be sharing the salary range that they have in mind with me. I had nothing to lose so I asked her, “Would you mind sharing the budget with me?”
She changed everything for me. She didn’t skip a beat and she was like, “Our budget is about $115,000.” I said, “Perfect, that sounds great to me.”
What was wild to me was that even though I felt like I’d done a lot of market research, I prepared myself, I was still going to ask for $10,000 less than they were offering. And they weren’t going to tell me that they had saved $10,000 on me—they weren’t going to offer that to me in goodwill.
So, I accepted that offer a couple weeks later and started my new job, but I just [couldn’t] shake what had happened. I was like, “This system is stupid.” Everyone else is dealing with this. I’m one of the lucky few [who] found a way to make what I was worth. I knew that the responsibility to change the system really lies with companies, but I don’t have the power as a random person to just call up, you know, Elon Musk and be like, “Hey you should really pay your people what they’re worth.”
But I had seen the power of the Great Resignation and what happens when people work together, especially on social media. I had seen some people doing street interviews, and I was like, it might be a really cool idea to just go ask people on the street how much they make to prove that it’s valuable—even with a stranger. And so I got my husband to come out with me in Georgetown one day, and we filmed it. It went viral. And the rest is history.
What was the moment where you realized Salary Transparent Street had taken off?
We filmed our first video around noon, edited it very horribly in TikTok, and posted it that night. When I went to sleep, it had like 50,000 views. I had a personal TikTok account where I talked about my personal career journey, and I didn’t get numbers like [that]. So right away, I knew this might be something. We woke up and our first video had a million views.
We posted another video that night and then we went out to quickly get more content, because I knew we had to post multiple times a day, or at least once a day, to be consistent. And every video for the first three months I had a million views, at least on TikTok.
I knew that we had something that could be a full-time job and company within the first week because I just knew that you don’t get numbers like this without having something. It was really validating and inspiring. On top of that, we were also talking with brands like LinkedIn, Glassdoor, Indeed, Monster, and ZipRecruiter. All five were in our emails trying to set up partnerships very quickly. I was always looking for work that made me passionate and excited, and this was that.
At the time, I still had my full-time gig, and it was really hard to balance both. I felt like if we didn’t put the passion in right away, we would lose our moment, and so I decided to quit three weeks after our first video. My husband—fiancé at the time—quit a month or two after and we just hit the road. We started traveling and we were listening to what our community wanted, which was more representation, different areas. I think that our success has been because we promised to deliver on that.
You mentioned that all of the big jobs platforms reached out to you. I’m really intrigued by how job sites are changing and working with influencers to try to better capture younger workers. What are you seeing?
I think Indeed is the strongest of the platforms in terms of their dedication to pay transparency, and it’s the reason that we decided to work with them. When we were listening to their pitches and learning about how we were going to partner, Indeed was the only company that from the beginning was talking about how they valued our impact on the pay transparency movement, and what they were planning to do to try to help as well, which was abiding by laws that require companies to list pay, holding companies accountable if they don’t, encouraging employers to share pay transparency, [and] they also had a salary calculator. So to me, it felt like they were not just talking the talk, actually walking the walk.
Deputy is our latest partnership. I’m really excited about them because I think that our partnership with them is really the true demonstration of our dedication to appreciating workers and looking out for them.
More broadly, I do think more companies have started to realize that [salary transparency] is not just a want to have, it’s something that workers expect. Many [workers] won’t even bother applying if you don’t list [a salary]. But salary transparency is also a way for companies to demonstrate good faith, to demonstrate that they will respect you by paying you fairly, and that they’re going to be loyal to you.
How do you decide to partner with a brand?
We partner with maybe 1% of the people that reach out to us. We say no to like 99% of companies, because I think that as creators with a platform, we have some responsibility to make sure that we’re delivering good content and fair resources to our audience. And I can’t tell you how many people commented on our videos and said, “Why aren’t you running a course?” Or “Why aren’t you selling something?”
Choosing not to sell anything to our audience and making sure everything is free is a very deliberate choice that we made to build trust with our audience. Because as a consumer of content, I hate being sold to. I’m more likely to support with engagement, or by buying merch, instead of buying the course that someone recommends. I lead from my experience as a consumer in that sense. But in making this decision, and forfeiting the pay, is also our way of showing that we’re doing this for the right reasons. We’re not selling out. And this is essential for building trust with our community.
It’s hard, though. There’s certain times where I want to say things on my personal account, and then I’m like, “Would Indeed have an issue with that?” And I don’t want to forfeit my paycheck or my team’s paycheck. I have people on my payroll now, so I don’t want to forfeit losing a brand deal that is all our revenue, because I chose to say something. It’s difficult.
What trends are you seeing on TikTok and Instagram in terms of the jobs workers are most interested in?
Tech, trades, and health care are the top-performing, most popular, most-viewed videos. To demonstrate that, we just did a trade job compilation, and last I checked, it had 16 million views on Instagram.
I think that the reason why those jobs are so intriguing to people is because there’s low barriers of entry to certain positions in those industries. I think people are tired of going to a four-year school that’s very expensive to walk out and make you know, $50,000 or $60,000. They want to make that, if not more, with lower investment. And so trades, tech, and health care have a lot of opportunities in apprenticeships, two-year degrees, certifications, or boot camps that cost a fraction of the price of a four-year degree and less time, as well. Money and time commitment are really big factors for people.
I also think people are unhappy with their current jobs and want to try something new. They can’t afford to go back to school for a four-year degree, but they can take a three-month boot camp and learn how to code and become a data analyst. It’s appealing and there [are] great career opportunities within those industries. I’d love to see more more women in the trades, as well.
And what about Gen Z? What are they looking for?
Gen Z is most interested in being compensated fairly. It’s less about loyalty. I think that Gen Z workers joining companies now are not even thinking about being there within the next five years. They’re seeing everything as an opportunity to learn and grow, but not as a final destination. Every move is strategic in helping them get to the next step. They’re looking for flexibility. They’re looking for fair pay.
In this economy, being paid fairly and according to your cost of living is important to even survive and pay your bills—let alone student loans. Pay is a huge factor. I would say pay is the number one factor.
Many states, like New York, are enacting pay transparency laws. What do you make of these laws and do you think they will lead to progress?
The pay transparency laws are really great. They’re a good move in the right direction. Sadly, I don’t think that they’re all-encompassing enough to help close pay gaps. There’s a lot of other things that have to occur before then, but they’re a moving in the right direction.
My biggest issue with them, and the New York pay transparency law comes to mind in particular, is the lack of clarity on the specific salary range that needs to be listed. The “good faith range” is an easy loophole for companies to get around.
The benefit of these laws is we can now identify companies that aren’t being good faith actors with the law. In a backhanded way, it works against companies that don’t fully comply, because we can identify companies that are not playing by the rules and probably have something to hide. [Companies] don’t want to be held accountable on social media or by Salary Transparent Street. I think that it’s a move in the right direction, though we just have to keep an eye on the data and see how the pay gap closes over time.
The issue though, is that a lot of the laws are based on blue and red states and who’s in control there. A federal law would go way further than state laws to cover all workers—instead of just certain states. But you know, that’s the way politics are, and all we can do is keep pushing them.
