An extremely excited tech worker didn’t hesitate to take to social media to celebrate after receiving some very good news. Sadly, her celebratory TikTok video resulted in a very costly lesson as it raised questions for her employer. While some agree that the clip was “taboo,” others don’t think the young woman did anything wrong.
Lexi Larson (Photo Credit: Screenshot)
Lexi Larson, a Colorado tech worker, was extremely excited to receive a $20,000 salary increase. Going from $70,000 to $90,000 was a reason to celebrate. So, in her excitement, Larson enthusiastically took to TikTok to share the good news, even going so far as to point out how much her paychecks had increased with the salary boost. Sadly, the footage resulted in a costly lesson.
After Lexi’s employer became aware of her TikTok videos and the salary information she had shared, they weren’t happy, to say the least. In fact, the Colorado tech worker went from receiving a raise to being let go as her employer fired her from her job for publicly sharing her pay increase.
“So, TikTok got me fired,” Lexi Larson admitted in a subsequent video. “My employer found my TikToks and really, really did not like that I was sharing my salary and stuff like that,” she continued. “They said my social media posts made them question my judgment as an employee,” Lexi furthered.
Although some think the termination was justified and believe the young woman should not have overshared private information with strangers, others strongly disagree. While no one can fault the young woman for being happy about receiving a raise, discussing salary where your coworkers and colleagues could hear or see it has long been taboo. However, times are changing as a reporter for Inside Edition pointed out.
“Revealing your salary used to be a big taboo, something you never, ever talked about with your colleagues, but now a younger generation is saying they have no problem laying it all out there,” the reporter said, and she’s not wrong. In fact, it’s a recent trend that’s been called “salary transparency,” where “people share how much they make at a job in hopes of empowering people to get paid what they deserve,” Inside Edition explained.
While some argue that sharing salary information in a public forum only amounts to “flexing” for “clout,” some experts say salary transparency is a good thing. “We should be talking about what we’re getting paid because we want to make sure there is transparency. That can help to eliminate or reduce bias and that can help close the wage gaps we’re seeing based on gender and race,” CNBC correspondent Sharon Epperson said.