I found out I was underpaid. Now I create TikTok videos asking strangers how much money they make to help break the taboo around discussing pay.

• Hannah Williams asks strangers how much money they make for her TikTok account, Salary Transparent Street.
• She made the account after finding out she was underpaid and hopes it can help break the taboo around discussing pay.

This as-told-to essay is based on a conversation with Hannah Williams, who runs the TikTok account Salary Transparent Street. It has been edited for length and clarity.

Last summer, I was in a bad situation. I was burned out, I learned I was underpaid, and I asked for more money but they denied me. It was a really low point in my career.

Fast forward a few months, I changed jobs and then started a TikTok account called Stocks and Squats. I had hopped five jobs in two-and-a-half years and increased my salary from $40,000 as a telemarketer fresh out of college to $115,000 at my current job as a senior data analyst at a government contracting firm in the Washington D.C. metropolitan area. At the same time, I had gotten into the best shape of my life. Both finances and fitness inspired the name of the account.

I started talking about my past jobs on Stocks and Squats, including how much money I made in each role, what my experiences were, and how I broke into data analysis. Some of those videos went viral, and I heard from a lot of people telling me the transparency was really eye-opening for them.

At one point, I asked my viewers what they thought of me going out on the street and asking people how much they make. A lot of them liked the idea, so I tried it, with my fiancé as the cameraman, and that was the birth of Salary Transparent Street in mid-April.

Why pay transparency matters

Talking about pay really helps people who are more likely to be discriminated against and taken advantage of in the workplace, such as women and people of color. When we don't talk about pay, we make it difficult for others to grow professionally.

My goal is to try to remove the taboo around pay conversations to help close the gender pay gap, improve diversity and inclusion in companies, and reduce discrimination.

I wasn't expecting this account to find the success it did, but I'm thrilled. Besides the account, we've made some free resources for our community, including a board where people can anonymously share their jobs and salaries, and we've already received 1,000 responses so far.

(In Salary Transparent Street's most-watched TikTok, which has more than 19 million views as of this writing and was filmed in Alexandria, Virginia, an attorney with nine years of experience says she makes $134,000, and a teacher with five years of experience reports making $53,000.)

How I shoot videos

We try to interview people at least three days a week, usually filming for one to two hours to get enough content to last a week.

Two or three years ago, I wouldn't have had the guts to do this. I think what changed is I gained more courage and confidence in my career, realizing my worth through changing jobs and realizing I'm not at the bottom of the totem pole just because of my age or experience. That has influenced how I'm able to approach people on the street.

Some viewers think we only profile people who make a certain amount, but that's not the case. Unfortunately, people with very high or very low pay don't want to speak to us as much as people with more average pay. This is exactly the thing I'm trying to combat. I want people to know your pay doesn't dictate who you are, your value, your intelligence, or your worth in society.

Some people are hesitant to share their salaries, and we try to talk to them about why it's valuable to have these conversations. Not everyone changes their mind right away, but if we can get them to think about it, then I think I've achieved my goal.

Salary Transparent Street is growing very fast; hopefully, we can grow to something that can be monetized.

We're going on a tour this summer, planning to hit all 50 state capitals and surrounding areas to show the discrepancy of salaries in different areas. The area where I live hasn't shown as many disparities because of the high cost of living. Once we go nationwide, we'll be able to highlight much bigger disparities.