Lets talk about a strange Designer Bubble happening in the Middle of America - $120K for a Junior designer? What R Everyone's thoughts? (twitter.com)
4 years ago from Tayler ODea, Editor / Partner at Digital Computer Arts
4 years ago from Tayler ODea, Editor / Partner at Digital Computer Arts
If this is the case I need a serious raise, wow
from the tweet, it seems like that is what juniors are asking, not what the market is paying.
that being said, as a mainly print designer, USD$120-150k a year in Australia is unheard of, except for perhaps the most senior or creative director types... Australia really doesnt seem to value design.
Obv depends where you are. I'm junior, but my compensation is in that range, not including stock. Including vesting stock, it exceeds it
Edit: and by where you are, I mean both company and location
Where are you located? And I'm guessing since you're taking about stock you work in the tech world?
You're not wrong.
As a freelancer in Sydney — doing print and digital work — my day rate floats around AUD$450-600.
Mathematically, if I was working most days of the year at that rate, it would put me in striking distance of that overall price range. In practice, I've never come close to being fully booked like that. At best, I'm probably only able to book maybe 30% of my available time. The rest is mostly just relying on projects with set pricing.
I know some Creative Directors can pull in AU$200-250K+, but theres not a lot of those roles. Particularly if you're not in the advertising.
Out of curiosity, what city are you in?
Im in Sydney, was working a similar day rate when freelancing, but yeah, being booked here was a problem. Even when I was head designer at a large multinational media company, I wasn't even pushing 100k aud. That was a few years ago though. Now I take it pretty easy...
These days I work at a small tshirt printing company and make my own stickers and tshirts.... Was less grindy.
This does seem like a lot. The salaries for a junior designer in my city is normally about $40k.
First, Tayler, why do you keep posting your tweets here?
Second, you're right that in Denver there are a lot of UI/UX jobs, but you're off base saying that juniors are getting offered that much. I'd love to see the job req from the company that is offering this to back up your claims.
Edit* Are you saying juniors are asking for this amount or they are getting offered this amount? If it's the former these juniors are out of touch with reality and I retract my second statement above.
Senior level, and that's the going rate for contractors in Minneapolis where I do most of my work in the States (lots of competition/talent though); Junior level contractors are about 2/3 that rate.
120K on west coast, Chicago and NYC seems pretty normal. In Omaha/Denver probably not so much.
Your in Denver. California has seen this for years. This is happening for many positions in the technology sector. Nothing really that new - still interesting that it's taken that long to mainstream.
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