How much did we make in 2025?

Our earnings from partnerships and social media

January 13, 2026

Every year, we get the same question in our DMs, comments, and at live events:

“Okay but…how much do you make?”

So this week, we’re breaking down how much Salary Transparent Street made in 2025, where that money actually came from, and how it compares to what we made in 2024.

Let’s get into it 👇

Industrial Maintenance Mechanic, UPS: $39/hr (Lenexa, KS)

Business Development Manager, Klarna: $114K-$143K (Columbus, OH)

Child Support Specialist I, State of Maryland: $48K-$61K (Multiple locations)

Café Coach, Capital One: $112K-$126K (New York, NY)

Lead Environment Artist, Disney: $150K-$193K (San Francisco, CA)

Gif by snl on Giphy

How Much We Made in Brand Partnerships

In 2025, Salary Transparent Street generated approximately $1.2M in revenue from brand partnerships.

Our partnerships ranged widely:

Small nonprofit collaborations at $5,000
One-off branded videos between $10,000–$25,000
A handful of long-term, multi-deliverable partnerships that collectively totaled hundreds of thousands of dollars

Why the range? Because no two partnerships are the same. Pricing depends on a partner’s goals, but also several factors, including:

Deliverables (one video vs. multiple formats)
Exclusivity (not working with competitors)
Usage rights (brands running ads behind our content)

A $25,000 video can quickly turn into a $40,000+ partnership once exclusivity and usage are added (and that’s standard market rate for a brand with over 3 million followers).

How Much We Made from Social Platforms

Roughly 97% of our revenue came from brand partnerships, not views. 👀

Despite having millions of followers and pulling in hundreds of millions of views a year, platform payouts are not where creators like us make our money.

Our estimated total platform earnings for the year came out to:

TikTok: $17,294
- 1.5M followers
- 103M views
Facebook: $8,466
- 400K followers
- 38M views
Snapchat: $8,081
- 16K followers
- 152K views
YouTube: $3,590
- 214K followers
- 8.7M views
Instagram: $0
- 1M followers
- 108M views
LinkedIn: $0
- 39K followers
- 147M impressions
Threads: $0
- 151K followers
- - views (not available)

Overall, we generated approximately $37K across our social platforms.

Why the Number Is So High (And Misleading)

This is the part people miss: when we talk about how much we “made,” we mean ONLY our business revenue, NOT personal income.

Everything we’ve made stays in the business to cover major expenses like:

Payroll (we are salaried at $150K and $100K)
Travel
Accounting & legal
Taxes (roughly ~30% of our earnings)

And as creators, we have many additional costs beyond the traditional ones:

Agency costs: If working with agencies, they take 15-25% off the top of each closed partnership deal.
Insurance: As small businesses, we often pay higher costs for health insurance coverage
Appearance: Not just the cost of a publicist, this can include beauty and maintenance costs, such as clothing, skincare, professional makeup, etc.

Despite our expenses, we still netted a solid profit! But how did this compare to previous years?

Why We Made Less Than 2024

In 2024, we made $1.6 million. So yes…2025 revenue was down, but here’s why we’re not sweating it:

1. We Turned Down a Lot of Money

2025 was a politically and culturally brutal year for workers’ rights, inclusive initiatives, union conversations, and most workers as a whole.

We were offered lucrative partnerships from several companies whose values did not align with ours, and we declined. We stand by those decisions and our channels’ ethics, even if it ultimately cost us higher revenue.

As DEI became a political punching bag, marketing budgets followed, and fewer brands wanted to publicly associate with labor rights, pay transparency, and union support.

Sad, right? Workers' rights shouldn’t be treated as a ‘trend’, it should be a 365-day-a-year expectation.

3. The Job Market Was Rough

Layoffs, ghost jobs, hiring freezes…all of it impacted our community directly, as well as companies we hoped to partner with.

People weren’t excited to hear salary numbers when they couldn’t find work (understandably).

4. Burnout Is Expensive

Honestly, after three years of nonstop 60-hour weeks, we definitely pulled back.

Less outreach. Fewer filming. More rest.

It was necessary for us to refill our cups, but it did reflect in our revenue.

The Bottom Line

$1.2 million is a lot of money! And while it’s lower than what we made last year, we’re proud that we prioritized our values and health over profit.

It’s also proof that, even in hard times, workers still need transparency. And we don’t have to sell out to bring it to you! 💚