A Salary Is a Drug:
7 Reasons Careers Can Quietly Steal Your Dreams (Especially for Women of Colour)
This image is uncomfortable because it tells a truth many professionals feel but struggle to articulate. A steady salary can soothe fear, stabilise survival and silence ambition, slowly, quietly and without drama.
For many women of colour, the issue is not a lack of aspiration. It is the cost of safety in systems that reward endurance more than evolution.
Why This Matters Now
According to Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development workforce reports, women from Black, Asian and minority ethnic backgrounds remain overrepresented in middle-management roles and underrepresented at senior decision-making levels. Resolution Foundation analysis shows persistent pay and progression gaps even when qualifications and tenure are comparable.
Meanwhile, McKinsey & Company’s UK-specific diversity research confirms that women of colour experience slower promotion velocity and higher attrition than their white female counterparts.
This is not about motivation. It is about structure.
Before the seven reasons, one framing matters. Careers do not kill dreams overnight. They sedate them through comfort, conditional belonging and the promise that staying put is maturity.
1. Safety Replaces Strategy
A regular salary reduces immediate risk, but it can also shrink long-term vision.
Feminist economist Dr. Darrick Hamilton highlights how economic insecurity pushes marginalised groups to prioritise stability over growth, even when potential is higher elsewhere.
2. Gratitude Is Weaponised
Women of colour are often made to feel “lucky to be here.” Sociologist Dr. Tressie McMillan Cottom notes that this framing discourages negotiation, mobility and challenge, gratitude becomes a leash, not a virtue.
3. Progression Becomes Vague by Design
HR audits consistently show that unclear promotion criteria disadvantage those without informal sponsorship. Institute for Employment Studies reports that opaque progression frameworks disproportionately stall ethnic minority women compared to white peers with similar performance ratings.
4. Emotional Labour Goes Unpaid
Women of colour are expected to mentor, translate culture and stabilise teams during disruption. Organisational psychologist Dr. Kumea Shorter-Gooden identifies this “invisible load” as a key driver of burnout without advancement.
5. The Pay Gap Masks the Power Gap
Pay is only part of the story. Office for National Statistics data shows that even when pay narrows, access to influence, stretch assignments and visibility remains unequal, particularly compared to white female colleagues.
6. Risk Is Penalised, Not Rewarded
Studies from Centre for Progressive Policy show that women of colour are judged more harshly for career moves, exits or entrepreneurial risk, reinforcing the message that staying is safer than stretching.
7. Dreams Are Deferred Until They Disappear
Bell Hooks wrote that systems of domination work best when people internalise limits. Over time, the dream is not killed, it is postponed until it no longer feels like an option.
When the System Normalises Staying Stuck
This image is not anti-work. It is anti-unconscious careers and nowhere is this more visible than in the NHS.
The NHS is one of the most diverse workforces in the UK, yet its own data reveals a stark contradiction. According to the Workforce Race Equality Standard (WRES), Black staff are significantly less likely to be promoted, more likely to enter disciplinary processes and more likely to report bullying and harassment than their white colleagues.
Women of colour are overrepresented in frontline, patient-facing, emotionally demanding roles, yet remain under represented in senior leadership, clinical directorships and executive positions.
This is where the “salary as sedation” narrative becomes real. The NHS offers stability, pension security and moral purpose.
But for many women of colour, that security comes with stalled progression, invisible labour and limited access to power. Research published by Office for National Statistics and NHS workforce reports shows that ethnic minority women often remain in the same pay bands longer than white female counterparts, even with equivalent qualifications, experience and performance outcomes.
The result is not laziness or lack of ambition. It is containment.
Sociologist Dr. Tressie McMillan Cottom reminds us that systems do not need to block dreams outright, they only need to delay them long enough for survival to take precedence over strategy.
Over time, the question shifts from “Am I evolving” or “Have I been quietly trained not to?” or “What do I want to build?” to “What can I afford to risk losing?”
A salary should fund your life, not replace your vision. A career should be a chapter, not a cage.
If this resonates, do not dismiss it as dissatisfaction. Sit with it. Share it. Talk about it because naming structural patterns is often the first step toward reclaiming agency.
Like, comment and share to keep this conversation honest and visible.
