AIGA | Aquent salary survey

[DeleteYourself]

Someone at my work e-mail this to me, thought everyone might find it interesting. It's not the most comprehensive salary survey, but it's good for a ballpark figure:

http://www.designsalaries.com/index.html?id=c52405

[morea]

whoa. mine's not even close.

time to ask for a raise!

[benjo]

Delete I actually did a search and for my area it's pretty accurate sad we get paid so little but it's more realistic when compared to salary.com.

[benjo]

whoa. mine's not even close.

time to ask for a raise!

Woe! This sounds like sh*t just hit the fan. ;)

[D-Zine]

just as I suspected..I make about 1/2 of what it says I should..lol.

le sigh

[benjo]

Well D-zine time to move on.

I'm only staying here for another 6-8months then I'm not stopping till I'm working out of Madison Ave. Have to get a job in the City cause I'm planning on going back to school and getting a Masters in Design at Pratt. It's designed for managing and running the business aspect of design. It's made to replace having someone with an MBA run a graphics department and instead have someone with an MD (I believe) run it as they would have to have worked at least three years in the field before even starting this program.

I'm excited cause this is quickly turning into a goal (plan) for me.

[DeleteYourself]

Surprisingly, I make what this suvery claims to be the 25 percentile. I'm surprised its even that accurate. I still think I should be making more, closer to the 50th percentile, at least, but whatever.

Glad to know the suvey is fairly accurate for your area, Benjo. I always wonder about the validity of these things. Also, I wish you could select multiple positions, because there are quite a few categories that I work in, and none of the options are totally inclusive.

So that brings up the question, ok, if I'm doing graphic design, marketing and website positions, do I average the salaries, add them, or figure out some hybrid of the 3 salaries to figure out what I should be making?

[benjo]

Sounds like a good idea to me. Let me know if it works out of you.

[D-Zine]

I wonder the same Delelte bc I do many jobs myself. I could throw in IT too no doubt.

[orangeena]

wow. I just hit the charts...even though I've been a sr. designer for 3 years now.

I wonder where they get these numbers. Every time I hear the question posed with this survey, the how survey or even the creative group survey, most people say they don't make these salaries. interesting.

[morea]

I handle the design, marketing, and basic web stuff, the IT, the administrative bs that nobody else wants to do, AND have to cover the accounts payables because the girl who handles it is out on maternity leave.

I don't mind the multitasking, because I *can* handle it most of the time. But I would like my pay to reflect the fact that I handle a LOT more work than my job description calls for!

[Kool]

I think there's some dude in each of these regions who makes about a million a year and throws the stats way off. I have never made anywhere near what these things say I should be making and I don't know anybody else who does either.

[D-Zine]

yeah..I agree with Kool! LOL

[benjo]

Well how do the percentiles work?

[Drorain]

Sad to say...I'm on the charts two, granted in the 25%tile, but I was angry because I thought I was so far under-market value...but in truth I'm wrong.

Ah! but next year...I should get a raise of about....according to the chart...6k haha, thats unlikely

[benjo]

Do they mean 25% of the people make 35K, about 50% make 39K, and 75% make 43K. That can't be right it doesn't add up. How do you read this?

[CHRISGEE]

I would say that the survey seems pretty accurate to me, based on my experiences. I've known plenty of designers who earned eye-popping salaries in and around town. Of course, this is NYC where eye-popping salaries are a bit more common than they are in smaller markets. I earned more money in NYC as a senior designer than many many art directors in Philly, where I grew up and went to design school.

Overall, I think the salary guide is pretty on. There are certainly plenty of designers making depressingly low salaries but there are also plenty who haul in a pretty good sum! I also think that sometimes, when we've worked someplace for a while, we're not as aware of just how valuable we are in the market.

I always went to see headhunters every 2 years or so, even if I was happy. Just to see what my worth was. Sometimes, my worth was not as high as I hoped, which would cause me to get motivated in brushing up in skills that were more in demand in the market. Other times, I learned that I was in high demand and VERY underpaid, which promted me to go to my bosses and demand a raise.

Design is a BIG business, folks. Designers have to demand our fair share of the pie or we'll never get it.

[benjo]

Chris Gee where do you work now?

[DeleteYourself]

Benjo, the 25th percentile means that you make more than 25% percent of people. If you're in the 99th percentile, you make more than 99% of people.

[CHRISGEE]

Chris Gee where do you work now?

I have my own firm since 4 years.

http://www.cube-interactive.com