I'm thinking of raising our starting pay to $15/hour for young adults.

Right now, new specialists start at $10/hour at Level 1, which is demonstrating basic communication skills while learning to do Facebook ads.

Level 2 is $15/hour to follow our ads creation process.

Level 3 is $20/hour to optimize campaigns.

Level 4 is $25/hour as a team lead, coaching others.

Level 5 is $30/hour as a manager with hire/fire authority.

And so forth.

What would be the impact of having our starting pay be $15/hour?

Perhaps we’d get more applicants, but our hire rate would be lower and the qualifying process harder. Maybe we’d have to raise prices a bit since we already intentionally operate at just above break-even.

Maybe we’d deny a lot of young adults who would like to learn digital marketing and are willing to work/learn but aren’t economically viable to start at $15/hour. Or perhaps we’d see a shift in our workers away from major urban areas.

So instead of Silicon Valley (California), we’d get more Silicon Slopes (Utah) and the Midwest.

What would you do?

Dennis Yu

Dennis Yu is co-author of the #1 best selling book on Amazon in social media, The Definitive Guide to TikTok Ads. He has spent a billion dollars on Facebook ads across his agencies and agencies he advises. Mr. Yu is the "million jobs" guy-- on a mission to create one million jobs via hands-on social media training, partnering with universities and professional organizations. You can find him quoted in major publications and on television such as CNN, the Wall Street Journal, Washington Post, NPR, and LA Times. Clients have included Nike, Red Bull, the Golden State Warriors, Ashley Furniture, Quiznos-- down to local service businesses like real estate agents and dentists. He's spoken at over 750 conferences in 20 countries, having flown over 6 million miles in the last 30 years to train up young adults and business owners. He speaks for free as long as the organization believes in the job-creation mission and covers business class travel. You can find him hiking tall mountains, eating chicken wings, and taking Kaqun oxygen baths-- likely in a city near you.

Dennis Yu