JSFiddle - React, Tailwind, and code Playground

HTML

<div>
    <span class="content">example</span>
    <span class="bg"></span>
<div>

CSS

div
{
    width: 200px;
    height: 25px;
    position: relative;
}

.content
{
    cursor: default;
    position: absolute;
    left: 50%;
    margin-left: -25px;
    text-align: center;
    width: 50px;
    z-index: 2;
}

.bg
{
    position: absolute;
    background: #dfdfdf;
    width: 100%;
    height: 100%;
    top: 0;
    left: 0;
    z-index: 1;
}

.content:hover + .bg
{
    background: #d6d6d6;
}