There are many factors which contribute as to how a graphic designer salary is come up with. Usually for people working in companies, this is pre-determined by the employer and discussed with the designer before they start the job. Freelancers, on the other hand, have an entirely different landscape when coming to terms with how much they get paid.
A graphic designer usually earns €29,611 every year on average. Most of the self-employed people in this line of business do not have more than twenty years of experience with their craft. Unlike other fields of services in freelance, graphic design in terms of salary does not change much even as people earn more experience. This is evident because designers with higher seniority in years and experience only earn a little more compared to their junior counterparts.
What are the Different Factors Affecting Graphic Designer Salary?
In order to better understand how the salary of a graphic designer is determined, it is important to breakdown the different factors affecting it. These contributing influences depict why some people are paid with higher salaries than others. Contrary to what you may think, it is not always about someone’s talent or marketing capability that decides why one designer earns a much enviable compensation than others.
Here are the different key points that weigh in on how much a graphic design artist’s salary is calculated:
- Location
- Gender
- Years or Variety of Experience
- Seniority in Terms of Years of Experience
Pay Difference in Terms of Location
Taking graphic design specialists living in the Netherlands as example, the difference in pay is highlighted in this visual presentation:
On average, people who are in the business of graphic designing earn €30,359.
In Rotterdam, designers get a total median pay of €39,400. This is higher than the national average by €9,041 to be exact.
People who live in the capital city Amsterdam only earn an average of €30,021 which is €338 below the national average.
Annually, graphic designers based in Amsterdam only earn €29,384. The salary of people in this field does show any significant increase even if they earn more experience and years of practice. The average designer only stay within the realms of graphic design within twenty years. Most of them move on to other positions after this duration.
Pay Difference in Terms of Gender
In the Netherlands, male graphic designers outnumber their female counterparts. In terms of salary, it has also been found that male designers earn more than the female ones.
This difference of salary in terms of gender is outlined in the display below:
Pay Difference in Terms of Variety of Experience
A graphic designer can be classified into three groups when differentiating how tenure they are in the business:
- Entry Level
- Mid-Career
- Experienced
Because most people in this business only stay in this position for twenty years tops, it is easy and fast to move up one’s level.
The graph below showcases the difference of salary among designers in the different levels:
Pay Difference in Terms of Years of Experience
One’s seniority in business is mostly determined through the years of experience a person has rendered. This is also evident among freelance graphic design artists as shown in the graph below:
Aside from location, gender, experience, and length of years in the business, skills also weigh in on how the salary of a designer is calculated.
The top three most popular skills in graphic designing are:
- Adobe InDesign
- Adobe Photoshop
- Adobe Illustrator
Below is a chart which highlights how these skills influence the landscape of a designer’s salary:
Knowing the different factors affecting the computation of graphic design salary makes you better understand how much people are paid wherever you are based. If you are moving to a different location or if you want to know where your present rate fare in the national average, use a salary calculator to help you figure out the numbers.
With these learnings in mind, can you say you are satisfied with your current graphic designer salary?
