'Act Your Wage'

"Posts with the hashtag, a corrective of sorts to #QuietQuitting, have racked up millions of views.

/ăkt yo͝or wāj/

A popular slogan on social media that is meant to urge workers not to labor beyond their pay grade.

Earlier in the pandemic, when the labor market was tight and workers across industries were fighting for higher wages and better hours, a hashtag took hold: #ActYourWage.

It was a corrective, of sorts, to #QuietQuitting. Act Your Wage became a slogan among workers who said they weren't underperforming; they were doing exactly what they were paid to do. It picked up in 2022, and posts with the hashtag have since racked up millions of views.

One recent example was in a TikTok video by Sarai Marie Soto, 31, a content creator who played both a boss and barista in a comedic exchange.

Ms. Soto first pretends to be a no-nonsense manager, wearing a green apron and "mean-ager" name tag. After informing the barista that many of her colleagues called in sick, she says, "I'm going to need you to be on your A-game today, OK?"

Switching roles to a fed-up worker, she responds, "How much more will I be making for doing all that extra work?," adding, "I'm actually not a volunteer. I'm here for the paycheck."

The unusually hot job market of the past few years -- with nearly two openings for every unemployed person -- emboldened millions of workers to change roles or industries. More than 40 million people quit their jobs in 2021, and some 50 million did in 2022. Many found jobs with higher wages, better benefits and more flexibility. Average hourly earnings for restaurant and hotel workers, for example, rose 28 percent from late 2020 through 2022, outpacing inflation.

But in recent months, the job market has begun to cool. The rate of people voluntarily quitting their jobs in July declined to its prepandemic level. Companies aren't offering the extensive benefits they were giving early in the pandemic.

"Pay growth has slowed from the double-digit highs that we saw last spring," said Nela Richardson, the chief economist at ADP, a payroll processing firm.

On social media, though, workers continue encouraging one another to push back against workplace policies they view as unfair.

"The idea that you can crowdsource support is new," Ms. Richardson said. "That's not something we were talking about 10 years ago, having a network of like-minded people."

And that network of workers keeps expanding, especially on TikTok, as people post videos showing what it might look like to refuse to do unpaid work.

"Take a look at this document, have it back to me before the end of the evening," Jessica Spangler, 29, says in a TikTok post where she plays a demanding boss.

"I thought we were short on overtime," replies the worker, also played by Ms. Spangler, who adds, "Classic unpaid emergency."

The overlaid text clearly states the video's message: "Act Your Wage."" [1]

1. 'Act Your Wage': [Money and Business/Financial Desk]. Goldberg, Emma. 
New York Times, Late Edition (East Coast); New York, N.Y.. 10 Sep 2023: BU.3.