What Are Millennials Willing to Give Up for Their Careers? (Infographic)

March 3, 2018

3 min read

Opinions expressed by Entrepreneur contributors are their own.

Millennials often get a bad rap in the workplace, but the reality is many of these young people are extremely hard workers and willing to make sacrifices to get ahead in the workforce.

To find out exactly what these young people are willing to give up for their careers, financial intelligence company Comet surveyed 364 employed millennials who are single and don’t have children and asked them whether, and to what extent, they would put their work before relationships.

Related: 11 Reasons Talented Millennials Get Fired

For many millennials, it’s about the money. With a focus on their finances, 41 percent said they would end a relationship if it meant getting a major promotion at work. In fact, if offered a life-changing promotion, the average surveyed millennial said they would stay single for 11 years, delay marriage for seven years and wait to have kids for eight years. However, while many millennials might give up dating, when it comes to long-term relationships, it’s a different story. To the contrary, millennials are willing to make job sacrifices for a long-term relationship that has a promising future: Over half of respondents said they would give up a career opportunity in exchange for a long-term relationship and 86 percent said they would move to another city if their significant other was offered a better job.

Related: 10 Lucrative Side Gigs for Millennials Looking to Earn Extra Money

While focusing on their careers is one of the reasons the surveyed millennials said they chose to stay single, some avoid relationships for entirely different purposes. The top reason is because they are are “picky.” Others say it is because they haven’t found anyone or dated much, don’t go out enough or simply haven’t found someone they liked enough to date.

Overall, the study found that millennial men were more willing to make sacrifices for their careers than millennial women. According to the research, it would take men an average raise of $21,000 to choose to delay a relationship, while women said it would take a whopping $51,000 to make the same sacrifice. The same was true for delaying marriage and kids. On average, men said a $37,000 raise would influence them to delay marriage, while woman said it would take $93,000. Millennial women were also less likely than men to end a relationship if it meant getting a major promotion or pass on a long-term relationship if it jeopardized their career.

Related: 8 Ways Any Millennial Can Be a Millionaire in 5 Years

To learn more about millennials and the sacrifices they are willing to make for work, check out the infographic below.