Study: The 2019 Creative and Marketing Salaries Guide

I went to art school growing up. In college, I majored in drama. So part of me expected to end up in a field that wasn’t exactly full of financial opportunity. When people found out about my academic path, the most common reaction was a variation of, “Good luck with that. Let us know how waiting tables goes.”

Mercifully, I found out about content marketing where there is money to be made in creative fields. But how much money, exactly? And are people happy with their salaries, or could they stand to make more? For that, we turned to The Creative Group’s 2019 Creative and Marketing Salaries Guide. The staffing agency has collected data about the creative job market based on the roles they fill daily.

According to the study, some of the most promising creative marketing jobs include content strategist, UX designer, and email marketing specialist. UX designers in the 95th percentile are expected to make $148,000 yearly, while content strategists in the same level make upwards of $110,500, and email specialists will make about $80,000. The 95th percentile indicates jobs that require the most amount of experience and expertise in job markets where competition is extremely high. The 25th percentile, in contrast, marks entry-level positions in which candidates might be still honing their skills or in smaller, less competitive job markets.

How do us creatives feel about those statistics? Research from The Creative Group’s parent company, Robert Half, found that 49 percent of U.S. workers in these fields think they’re paid fairly, but 46 percent feel underpaid in their current position. Fifty-one percent of the employees who consider their salaries too low are between the ages of 35 and 51, while 44 percent are age 18 to 34. It should also come to no surprise that women are more likely to feel underpaid than men.

Salaries will vary from company to company, but the data here is a good starting point for people looking to talk to their bosses about compensation. It’s also a great resource to use when your uncle asks what you’re doing with that art degree these days. And if you’re part of the 49 percent of employees that find their salary appropriate, even better.

For the full study from The Creative Group, click here to download.