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This Is What Fashion Salaries Look Like Right Now

The results from our 2022 salary survey are in.

When it comes to careers and finances, we’re living through a weird time, regardless of what field you work in. From the pandemic to the “great resignation,” from inflation to recession, many factors are converging that make it difficult to predict what the fashion job market may look like even a few months from now. But one thing’s for sure: It’s as good time as any to make sure you’re being paid what you deserve.

Once again, we anonymously surveyed our readers at the end of last year, asking them their job titles and annual compensation, as well as a number of other details to get as much insight as possible into the average salaries for fashion’s most in-demand roles, while taking into consideration other factors that might have contributed to their pay in 2022. Of note, we only incorporated data backed by a meaningful number (usually more than 5%) of respondents.

Read on for what we found.

Who took our survey?

We surveyed more than 550 people working across the fashion industry, including retail, PR, design, media, marketing and product development. They work for companies including Adidas, Nike, Condé Nast, Bustle Digital Group, Bergdorf Goodman, Nordstrom, Ssense, Gucci, Louis Vuitton, Vince, Mara Hoffman and a slew of boutique PR companies. Some are self-employed freelancers.

Demographic-wise, the average respondent identifies as female and white, has a Bachelor’s degree, lives in New York and works for a small-to-medium-sized private company. A bit more on our cohort, below.

Education Level

The vast majority of respondents listed Bachelor’s degree as the highest level of education they completed. The small, unlabeled slices at the top include Doctoral degree holders and those who didn’t graduate high school.

Location

Percentage of respondents by location.

Who’s making the most money?

When it comes to salaries, many factors can play a role. 

An obvious one is experience level. Our respondents shared how many years they’d worked in the industry, and below you can see how that corresponds to average salary. 

There’s also the specific field you’re in: Some are simply more lucrative than others — and this can change. Below, you’ll also see which fields had the highest percentage of over-$200k salaries in 2022.

Many respondents also shared their race, ethnicity and gender identity; you can also see how that demographic info corresponds to salary. 

Salary based on years of experience

On average, entry level salaries were $58,000, while those in the biz for at least 20 years made $123,620 on average.

Salary based on gender

On average, our male-identifying respondents (only 9.4% of our total group) made about $3,000 more per year than our female-identifying ones (89% of the group). There weren’t a meaningful number of non-binary or otherwise identifying respondents in our cohort.

Salary based on ethnic/racial identity

Asian respondents (9.6% of total) made about $27,000/year more on average than white respondents (69.3%) and about $32,000/year more than Black respondents (13.3%). There weren’t a meaningful number of otherwise identifying respondents.

Distribution of $200K+ salaries

The majority of respondents making over $200,000 per year worked in PR. Editorial was the next-most lucrative field.

Retail/Buying/Sales Salaries

Average retail/buying/sales salaries by years of experience

Publicity Salaries

Average PR salaries by years of experience.

Design Salaries

Average design salaries by years of experience.

Editorial Salaries

Average editorial salaries by years of experience.

Print vs. Digital 

On average, those working across both print and digital made about $30,000/year more than those working in digital only. There weren’t a meaningful number of respondents who only worked in print.

Marketing Salaries

Average marketing salaries by years of experience.

Product Development Salaries

Average product development/supply chain salaries by years of experience.

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Source: Fashionista.com

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